Naruto: Defender of the Will of Fire
by paintotheworld2
Summary: Rated M for future gore and maby lemon  Naruto is given an ultimatum after he fails the genin test, become stronger, or die. Watch as the bane of konoha becomes its greatest defender.
1. Chapter 1

Don't own Naruto, you know the deal.

**A Brush with Death**

It was a quiet night; in the hidden leaf village all the civilians would be tucked away in their quiet homes with peace knowing that they were safe due to the village's ninja. Only one would be found up at this late hour though, and he was the professor, the Sandaime Hokage Hiruzen Sarutobi, and we find the Kami no Shinobi in a fight for his life against the greatest enemy of the Kages.

Paperwork…

'_Why did I take this job again?'_ he asked himself for the millionth time.

There was a noise at the door revealing it to be opening, 'Who could that be, and I don't have any appointments at this hour.

When he looked up he saw a blob of orange with some yellow spiking out of the top. After realizing that it was his favorite (not that he would tell anyone) blonde academy student Uzumaki Naruto.

He was just about to say hi to the orange clothed boy when he felt the feeling of imminent doom enter his heart, accompanied with the grin on the boys face only one thought made it before he was knocked out.

'_Oh shit, not again.'_

***With Naruto***

"Hehe perverted old man" the hyperactive blonde thought to himself as he carried the rather large scroll to the designated meeting place.

"Huh I'm early" he thought out loud "I guess I could look at the scroll."

As he stared at the scroll of sealing he couldn't help but think of why he had taken it.

***Flashback***

'_Stupid Bunshin no Jutsu,'_ the usually cheerful blonde thought to himself, _'so what if I can't do it, I can still be a good ninja.' _

Before he could continue brooding, he heard his name called out. He turned and saw his assistant instructor Mizuki walking over.

"Hey can I talk to you for a minute?" He asked.

"Ok Mizuki sensei." The whiskered blonde replied.

"You do realize that Iruka only wants you to be ready to be a shinobi, he doesn't want you to get hurt." Mizuki stated.

"I know Mizuki sensei." He replied with a depressed look on his face.

"All right, I think it's time I got to the point." Mizuki says "I had a look in the rule book and fond something you may be interested in."

"What is it?" the boy asked curiosity pushing the depression away.

"It's a makeup test, for the students who failed the exams."

"Really?" the blonde asked excitement evident in his voice.

"Would I lie to you?" the chunin asked rhetorically.

'_I got you now demon brat and everyone will think I'm a hero.'_ He thought

"Ok so here's what you need to do…"

***End Flashback***

"He didn't say anything about looking at it…" the blond said with a grin to himself. "I'll do the first thing I see, DATTEBAYO!"

He opened it up a little and the first thing he saw was…

'_Tajuu Kage Bunshin no Jutsu? Great another Bunshin technique, well best get started.'_

***2-3 hours later***

'_Wow that didn't take too long now did it?'_ Naruto looked around wondering where Mizuki could possibly be. When his eyes land on the scroll, he sprouted a shit eating grin. 'No point of wasting the extra time.' He thought to himself.

When he opened up the scroll more his eyes nearly popped out of his head at the number of Jutsu, seals, and theory on his scroll. Like any 13 year old boy would do in his position, he skimmed until he found something interesting. Right as he got a good look at what was there, he heard a rustle behind him; he quickly closed the scroll due to him being unsure if he was allowed to look. When he looked at the noise he saw something he didn't want to see. He saw his head teacher, Iruka.

"Hehe hey Iruka sensei" he sheepishly started "is you going to do the makeup test instead of Mizuki?"

"Make up test?" Iruka asked forgetting to yell at him for a second.

"Yeah Mizuki sensei said if I was able to infiltrate the Hokage Tower and get this scroll, I would pass!"

'_If Mizuki is behind this, which means…' _Iruka was about to continue the thought when he heard a familiar whistling noise. He traced the sound in a second only to realize a Giant Shuriken flying strait towards the blonde that was still staring at him. So he did the only thing he could do.

_Squelch!_

He stares up at the man who until a moment ago was easily ten feet away suddenly appearing in front of himself. He was about to ask why, when he was grabbed and tossed in a random direction, scroll and all. He looked back at Iruka to ask why he did that, when he saw a rather large shuriken stab into the ground right where his head was. Naruto looked up to where the metal star came from, to see a scowling Mizuki.

"So you're behind all this after all huh Mizuki." Iruka stated wincing in pain as he pulled the shuriken out.

"That's right Iruka, this was all my idea." Mizuki stated with his scowl changing into a smirk. "Naruto, give me the scroll!" he started "Iruka is trying to steal it!"

"No Naruto he's lying! He wants the scroll!" the chunin screamed, "Run, I'll hold him off!"

So Naruto ran as fast as his adolescent legs could go, and took cover in the forest within earshot of the two chunin.

"How noble of you, to let him get away while I kill you here." The traitorous ninja sneered.

"You're wrong about one thing; I'm not going to die." Iruka said with confidence.

"Then let's test your metal here Iruka, you could never beat me in the spars." Mizuki replied.

"This isnt a spar now is it?" Iruka replied hurling the shuriken at Mizuki who dodged with minimal effort.

And they were off, Mizuki started with a round-house kick aimed for Iruka's head. He stopped the momentum with his forearm, and caught his shin with the other hand; Mizuki prepared for the block and swung the other leg to perform a devastating heel-drop. Iruka used his arm that stopped the kick, and blocked the heel drop. Mizuki used the momentum from the heel-drop and wretched his other foot free, as well as back flipping away.  
>Not allowing Mizuki to rest Iruka jumped forward and began his attack with several punches, followed by a leg sweep. Mizuki was able to block, the punches but was tripped up by the leg sweep. He was able to catch himself and delivered a hard kick which landed and sent Iruka stumbling back. They both recovered and started making hand seals.<p>

"Katon: Goukakyuu no Jutsu!" Iruka growled out after the six seals.

"Doton: Doryūheki no Jutsu!" Mizuki countered.

The ball of fire smashed into the wall and exploded sending heated rocks in all directions.

"It seems were even" Iruka stated while brushing the hot dirt from his face "are you sure you can beat me?" He continued mockingly.

"Why are you protecting him?" Mizuki nearly screamed from frustration ignoring Iruka's quip "he's the Kyuubi, he killed all your family, and I thought you hated him"

Naruto who was hiding behind a tree, feeling fear and awe at the shinobi battle going on, heard Mizuki and felt dread enter his sistem, he was a demon?

And then everything clicked for Naruto, the glairs, the whispers, the hatred, it all made sense now.

"You're right, I do hate the Kyuubi" Iruka stated.

'_Iruka sensei, why?' _Naruto began to cry, all of the strain was getting to him, and he prepared to run when he heard what Iruka said next.

"But, I don't hate Naruto, because he's Naruto Uzumaki, not the Kyuubi."

A smile formed on Naruto's face when he heard that.

"Ok then," Mizuki started "then you can die with the demon, you demon loving bastard, and I know just the way to do that." The Chunin said with a malicious smile.

"huh?" Iruka questioned.

"Behold, my gift from Orochimaru" Mizuki stated ignoreing his questioning noise.

"Orochimaru?" Iruka asked shocked to hear the name of that trator.

Mizuki didn't talk anymore, which prompted the curious boy to look up from his hiding place just to see something he would never forget.

Iruka watched with astonishment as Mizuki grew around six inches, and his muscles began to bulge out enough to tear his sleeves and reveal some black stripe like marks on his arms as well as some on his forehead. He smiled devilishly revealing fang like teeth, and in an instant he was behind Iruka, he didn't have enough time to do anything but look back and see the fist smash into his face and send him crashing into a tree. Iruka was able to get up, and they started a mostly one sided Taijutsu match between the two. Even when he used ninja tools Mizuki would just swat them away.  
>After one particularly painful hit to the ribs, Mizuki said "I think I'll end this now." Now with a smile that makes babies cry Mizuki picked up the forgotten giant shuriken that was burried into a tree, and prepared to gore Iruka with it.<p>

He lifted the shuriken above his head and said "any last words?" Iruka was about to speak when something orange hit Mizuki in the head. And that orange thing turned out to be Naruto, more specifically Naruto's foot.

"Naruto, I told you to run!" Iruka yelled.

Ignoring Iruka the pissed blonde said to Mizuki "If you touch Iruka sensei again… I will kill you."

Mizuki looked like he just heard a bad joke and said "You're kidding; I'll kill you in one hit!"

"Well let's get started." Naruto said. "Tajuu Kage Bunshin no Jutsu!" he screamed.

The two chunin looked both shocked and impressed with the wall of orange that surrounded them.

"You think this will matter, ill tear them apart!" Mizuki roared.

"We'll see." They all said at the same time.

Chaos ensued… Mizuki was slowly losing the battle with the sheer number of Shadow Clones, coupled the temporary blinding from them dispersing, he was hard pressed to keep them from catching him unaware. He felt his knee buckle from a kick from behind,

'_How is the demon doing this?'_ Mizuki thought _'I won't lose here, no, No, NO, NOOOO!' _

A spike of chakra came from the middle of the crowd of Narutos, but not normal chakra, it was a wispy dark purple.

"What is this?" a Shadow clone asked, "I don't know" another replied.

They all suddenly heard a dark chuckle, turning they only saw a monstrous tiger like Mizuki who is twice as big as before tearing through the army of Shadow Clones like wet tissue paper. Naruto got into a defensive stance in front of Iruka preparing to defend him from the monstrous Mizuki.

"You weakling," Mizuki roared with a triumphant smile, "You had no skills whatsoever; with that many solid clones you may have stood a chance if they even knew a little taijutsu!" Mizuki smiled "and now you die."

What happened next was a blur to Iruka, one second the blonde was standing there preparing to die to defend the one who cares about him, and the next second he gets skipped like a rock into a tree laying there unresponsively.

"NARUTO!" Iruka screamed at the downed boy.

"Demon brat didn't even stand a chance" Mizuki said with a dark chuckle.

After that statement something in Iruka snapped. With a roar Iruka attacked Mizuki with all his remaining strength in an attempt to avenge his younger brother figure. Iruka began with a hard kick toward Mizuki' knee, causing it to buckle, followed by an elbow to the eye. Getting over his shock at the sudden attack; Mizuki began counter and attack Iruka back, blocking a few shots at his chest he threw a hard punch at Iruka who dodged, right into the monster kick from the opposite direction.

After that kick, Iruka was sent flying back into a tree leaving a crack in its trunk.

"Shit!" Iruka painfully growled. Mizuki slowly walked over to Iruka and prepared to stab Iruka with his claws until he heard Naruto get up. Confusion was evident on their faces, along with anger for Mizuki. But what they heard next stopped them in their tracks.

"NINPO: MUGEN CHAKRA NO JUTSU!" they heard Naruto scream.

***With Naruto a few minutes before***

All he could remember was standing in front of his teacher, and then nothing but darkness… as well as echoes of things happening on the outside, at least that's what he thought. Then his vision began to clear. As he was standing he heard a crack, as he looked over he saw Iruka slumped against a tree with Mizuki stalking over towards him.

Anger overwhelmed him as he prepared to charge in, but he remembered what happened to his clones and to himself. Then it came to him, he remembered something he got a good enough look at in the scroll. He smirked to himself as he began a chain of hand seals.

"I will get you for hurting Iruka sensei," Naruto growled, "and this will help."

"NINPO: MUGEN CHAKRA NO JUTSU!" he screamed.

And everything slowed down for him, not noticing (or caring) he charged the tiger like traitor.

***Iruka's perspective***

Iruka as a chunin has seen many things in his life. But none of those things compared to the chakra and killer intent he felt except the Kyuubi no Yoko, thirteen years ago. He looked at the source only to see Naruto release so much chakra; he looked as if he was on fire, and it was forming a column that went past the tree limit, as well as forcing a crater into the ground from the pressure. When he looked more closely he saw Naruto's skin was dark red and muscles bulging enough to tear the top of his jumpsuit. At first he thought the Kyuubi was escaping, but he remembered what the Kyuubi felt like, this was nothing compared to the fox.

Now what happened next was shocking to both Iruka and Mizuki, Naruto jumped at Mizuki leaving a shallow crater in the ground, as he landed he forced another crater, then he charged leaving a trench in the ground, as well as a trail of dust and dirt. He reached Mizuki in an instant with his fist cocked back and prepared to deliver a hard punch to his face. Mizuki in his transformed state was able to block, and returned a punch which connected, causing a huge amount of damage, but didn't seem to deter the flaming boy which began to throw several sloppy but extremely fast punches at Mizuki. Mizuki not to be out done began his taijutsu combo. Iruka watched in amazement as Naruto took hits that would permanently cripple people twice his age and kept on fighting.

Naruto was on a high, he couldn't feel any of the hits he was taking because his body went into shock when he first used the Jutsu. All he knew was to keep throwing punches and kicks at the transformed man in front of him. Mizuki on the other hand, was feeling every hit Naruto was throwing at him. And no matter how hard he hit back, it never seemed to hurt him. Finally Mizuki got a lucky hit while Naruto's feet were off the ground sending him flying into a tree. Naruto was knocked out, instantly despising the chakra. Mizuki covered in bruises and cuts, slowly advanced on the downed academy student, and suddenly fell over with a grunt.

Iruka stood in shock as he saw the monster that he was fighting suddenly drop. He slowly crawled toward Naruto due to one of his legs being broken. When he reached Naruto he stared in shock at what he saw. Naruto looked like one big bruise, and every injury was slowly draining blood.

As he was thinking of what to do, a squad of Anbu black ops along with the Hokage appeared in a shushin. Two of the Anbu came over to him and picked him up, one went to the scroll, and one went to Mizuki's body. The Hokage went to Naruto and picked him up as carefully as he could.

"Take him to the hospital and get him fixed up." Hiruzen started "and take his body to the morgue, you handle the scroll."

"Hai Hokage sama." The masked men said simultaneously.

"Now let's find out what happened to you Naruto." The aged man said to himself, and with that he shushined away.

*Hospital*

Almost instantly the old Kage appeared at the entrance of the leaf's hospital. He quietly walked in only to be ambushed by a nurse.

"Good evening Hokage-sama." The nurse said with a bow "do toy need help with him?"

"Yes that would be great." He said with a smile, though no one could tell, he was nervous.

Before the nurse could stop herself, she growled out "It's him!"

The Hokage was about to do something before she made a scene but the damage was done. Everyone in the waiting room was now glaring at the purplish blue blob in the Hokage's arms.

"All right now listen here," the old man started in his no shit tone "if you don't get him a room, I will have you fired for malpractice, are we clear?"

The nurse didn't answer, but she went over to the desk and told the nurse there, she returned and quickly moved to take the Hokage to the prepared room.

When they arrived at the room the Hokage placed the boy on the bed and prepared to wait for the medic ninjas to do their magic. As he waited he couldn't help but wonder how the boy hurt himself so badly, because he left his office and his crystal ball Jutsu as soon as the traitor transformed into that tiger like monster. He was about to ponder it some more when the medic ninja walked up to the bed and ran the diagnostic.

"How is he?" the old man asked.

"He's seen better days," the medic started "several of his bones are broken clean through, his muscles are torn in his arms and legs, punctured lung, a concussion, but those are the normal ones"

The Hokage looked at the medic with wide eyes and replied "Normal injuries?"

"Yes," he said "it's strange, his chakra network is stretched to the point of rupture, his capillaries and veins have ruptured due to some sort of pressure from the inside of his body, we believe his chakra network is the cause, and last there is..."

"Trauma to the stomach and symptons of a small heart attack..." Sarutobi finished.

"How did you know?" the medic asked.

"I have seen this before; these injuries are from a Jutsu, that's all I can tell you." The Hokage replied with a sorrowful voice.

"Oh… I see." The medic replied with a bead of sweat rolling down his forehead.

"Now get working" The Hokage said, "and I'll be watching."

The Hokage sighed as he sat down in the chair and prepared for the excruciatingly slow process of patching up the boy. Usually this wouldn't take too long thanks to the fox, but with this Jutsu it may take weeks to fix him, and that's saying something.

"So much for getting ahead with the paperwork." The Hokage mumbled to himself.

End

**AN- hey there, im paintotheworld2, and this is my first story. read and review, love to hear from you all, sugestions would be appriciated, flames will be ignored yatta yatta yatta.**

**Next chapter The Fox And Recovery.**


	2. Chapter 2

**Don't own naruto... :(**

**The Fox and Recovery**

Naruto was not having a good day. First he failed his exam that would allow him to be a ninja, next he thought that he was getting a makeup exam. Which turned out to be a trap to get the forbidden scroll of sealing and get himself killed, he learned he contained the most powerful… thing in existence, and the icing on the cake, he goes unconscious after using that Jutsu from the scroll and where does he end up… knee deep in sewage.

"God damn it," the boy growled out. "A sewer, really?" He asked no one in particular.

He looked around the tunnel trying to find an exit. He walked for a while since his body seemed to know which way to go. He just followed his instincts and ended up at a sewer vault door. He openes the door and opens with a blast of hot air. He walked into the room and saw something he would never forget. It was a cage. It was easily 100 feet tall, with golden bars as thick around as he was, being held closed by a single piece of paper, the world seal was printed on it, he moved closer to see what was behind the bars, and that's when he heard it.

A monstrous growl, something that filled him with utter terror. he looked into the black depths of the cage and what he saw made him actually gasp. An eye, but this eye was as tall as he was, the iris was red with a slit and it held a terrifying feral madness within them. He was frozen to the spot from by its killer intent.

Another growl came from behind the gate, and red wisps lit up the monster behind the gate, revealing a silhouette of a monstrous fox, his observation was cut short when a defining roar shattered the relative quiet of the sewer. Naruto was blasted back into the wall with the raw force behind the sound wave, as well as a wall of water from the floor. The water along with Naruto fell back to the floor and pushed him toward the gate as the monstrous fox smashed its head against the gate with a crash, Naruto sat there about five feet from the gate, the fox moved its hand back, and thrust it toward the bars, suddenly the pipes emanating a blue glow suddenly flashed and he could hear pressure build up inside. The instant this happened the fox's hand came to a stop, with its fingers in between the bars inches from the blonde boys face.

Without even looking back, Naruto ran as fast as he could toward the exit, only to hit his head on a low pipe, knocking him out.

He instantly disappeared from the sewer, leaving the monster with glairing mindless eyes staring where he used to be, but neither noticed a change in the beast, the monsters eye a shape of 3 tomoe in one eye and in the other only two, slowly turning to one.

***Hidden Leaf Hospital, Critical injuries ward***

Hiruzen Sarutobi was watching Naruto sleep, making sure the doctors would heal him without doing anything to him, they were finished operating on him already but that really didn't matter with the civilian doctors. He learned his lesson a while ago to not leave Naruto alone here at the hospital at night, right now he was getting as much work done as he could while not in his office. He was receiving a report from an anbu from the morgue about Mizuki.

"So it's the seal that killed him?" Sarutobi asked.

"He was killed by a chemical inside the seal that changed his appearance; prolonged use combined with the fight with the boy caused him to..."

Before he could finish a flask of chakra came from Naruto's bed and the chakra formed into what looked like fire.

"He activated the Jutsu? But how could that be?" the anbu asked.

"Some high stress triggered it, what kind of nightmare could he possibly be having?" The Hokage replied moving toward the boy.

And before he got there, the Jutsu suddenly canceled and the room was back to normal. what surprised sarutobi and the anbu that naruto was awake, and looked like he fell into the hotsprings on girls free day. They heard the sound of several people running up the hall. he looked back at naruto to see him pass out again.

"That chakra was in human, it must have been the demon." Sarutobi heard a doctor say.

"Watch it, the Hokage is in there." He heard another say.

The Hokage growled angrily at the ignorant people. But he couldn't really do anything to them because they were in the civilian hospital, he opened the door and ordered the medic nin that came with the doctors and told them to heal him again. He sat down in the waiting room chair and pulled out his favorite book and ordered the anbu to keep them out.

'_I'm way too old for this.'_ He thought with a sigh. He chuckled at the outraged yells of the civilian doctors that attempted to order him out of the way.

_'they would just get in the way of the medics.' _He thought.

***The next morning***

Naruto slowly cracked his eyes open, and what he saw was white. Blinking a few times he realized he was staring at a ceiling, more specifically a hospital ceiling. Now his senses kicked into high gear due to his not so irrational fear of hospitals. Realizing who was in the room with him, he tried to calm down, and finally realized how much he hurt.

"Holy shit what happened," Naruto nearly yelled, "it feels like the time I got between Sasuke and his fan girls."

Sarutobi chuckled at that, remembering that occasion, it reminded him of Jiraya and Tsunade all those years ago. Shaking off the nostalgia, he decided to get down to business.

"Naruto," he began "I need a report for last night, and what Jutsu you used that caused you too be put into the hospital." He already knew what Jutsu was used, but he needed a report for the council of elders. Naruto began an in-depth story complete with sound effects, until him using the Jutsu.

But while Naruto was telling the story, Sarutobi was hatching a plan to help Naruto out of the jurisdiction of the civilians. It's when the advisors showed up at the door last night that he knew needed a change.

***flashback***

Sarutobi was reading his book thankful that those loud civilian doctors left, but when he suddenly heard the garble of his old team mates and current heads of the elder counsel as well as his advisors, Homura Mitokado and Koharu Utatane.

Sighing Sarutobi ordered the Anbu to let them in, before they began to threaten the poor masked man, last time it took ten minutes to get them to stop.

"Hiruzen is what I hear true?" Koharu started. "Did that boy steal the forbidden scroll of sealing?"

"I will get a report to you at the next meeting with the rest of the counsel." Sarutobi replied without even taking his eyes off his book.

"You are allowing that boy too much room; he should be locked up before he tries something like this again!" Koharu shot back, annoyed that he didn't tell them anything.

"I haven't received a report from all the parties involved," the Hokage growled back "I need Naruto-kun's report." Regretting the words as soon as they left his mouth, the Hokage awaited the ferocious verbal attack.

"Why would you need a report from him?" Homura asked as if on cue. "He would just lie to save his own hide."

"Come on Hiruzen," Koharu said. "Just tell us now."

"I will give you a report at the next council meeting; now get out before I ask the Anbu to remove you." Hiruzen replied with a growl.

"Remember Hiruzen, he's a civilian, as soon as he's out of here he's ours." Homura nearly yelled.

***End Flashback***

'_That's it!' _the Hokage thought with a smile creeping onto his face _'Kill two birds with one stone that way.'_

"Naruto thank you for the report." Hiruzen started. "Now you will be getting paid for the completed B rank mission, you will get your check in the mail."

"But I thought Ninjas only got paid for missions." Naruto said with a confused look.

"Yes only ninjas get paid for missions" Hiruzen said with a smirk. _'I should really bring a spare with me from now on; never know when you need one.' _He thought while taking out his own Hitai-ate from somewhere in his robes.

The look on Naruto's face was priceless. A tear slid down his bandaged face as the Hokage put the Hitai-ate on the bedside table. Naruto jumped up and hugged him revealing how healed he was.

"Thanks Oji-san." Naruto whispered.

"Now Naruto," The Hokage started. "That Jutsu you used, was in the scroll for a reason, unlike the multi shadow clone technique, the infinite chakra technique is an S class Jutsu for its effects on the body, not the chakra. I'm not going to go into too many details but you would be dead if not for your tenant." Sarutobi allowed that too sink in. "Now because of your tenant you not only survived, but healed from wounds that seasoned shinobi would take months to recover from.. Now because of this, you can still be in the same class as the rest of your classmates. As for the Jutsu, you can't use it again unless it is a life or death situation."

"I… Understand Oji-san." Naruto replied with a saddened look. "Umm, Can you do something for me Oji-san?"

"What is it Naruto?" The Hokage asked with a curious expression on his face.

"Can you get me some things from the library?" Naruto asked meekly.

The Hokage looked at him for a minute, as if not believing what he just heard. "Umm sure Naruto, anything you had in mind?" he asked wondering what Naruto could possibly want from the library.

"I need to train Oji-san, and since I'm here I can't do anything hands on. So could you get me something I can do chained to a hospital?" Naruto asked with a serious look on his face.

Hiruzen was shocked to see Naruto that serious, and that seriousness reminded him so much of his father, and that's where it struck him. _'I could give him that!' _

"Sure Naruto-kun I'll be right back." Hiruzen replied.

Now for the next half hour, Naruto alternated between pondering his weird dream, thinking about what Mizuki called him, and staring at his new Hitai-ate. Finally he heard footsteps at the door and it cracked open, and he saw the Hokage walk in with a few books, a scroll, and a paper bag emanating the scent he would never forget.

"Sorry it took so long, I just decided to get some ramen for you."

"WOHOO RAMEN! Thanks Oji-san!" Naruto said quickly grabbing a jumbo travel size bowl and chopsticks. "Itadakimasu!" and the feast began.

A few jumbo bowls and one bulging stomach later, Hiruzen decided to give Naruto the stuff.

"Naruto, I brought you what you asked for." Hiruzen pulled out the books, one with the words 'Basic Shinobi Tactics', another said 'Shinobi Theory', and the last one looked very old with the words 'Seals of All Types'.

"Seals?" Naruto asked curiously.

"Be sure to read the other ones first." Sarutobi reminded. "This scroll is just a regular offensive Jutsu but you have to read the seals book first."

"Oji-san!" Naruto pulled the puppy dog eyes in an attempt to get the old man to quench his thirst for Jutsu.

The Hokage just chuckled and sat down pulling out his own choice literature, Naruto just sighed and picked up, 'Shinobi Theory' and began to read. Though boring it began to make sense after he began to remember random snippets of lectures from Iruka, and he was done with the first few chapters after a few hours. 'Basic Shinobi Tactics' was easy to understand, but he doubted most of these tactics actually worked, especially when he saw a scaled up version of one of his anti pursuer traps for one of his pranks, he sighed as he finished the first few chapters and decided to hold it for tomorrow.

Now when he reached 'Seals of All Types' he stopped to brush some of the dust off. He spotted the initials M.N. crudely written on the cover. Deciding to ignore it, he opened the book and was suddenly in a whole new understanding, everything he read made perfect sense and every diagram was broken down in his head almost right away. There were also crude notes in the margins, showing other more complicated seals as well as detailed descriptions. He finished the whole book in less than two hours.

"Done, DATTEBAYO!" He yelled.

Hiruzen who fell asleep an hour or so ago, nearly jumped out of his chair. Looking at Naruto he gave him a disbelieving look, "You can't possibly have the seals book." He said.

"I sure did!" Naruto replied with a confident smile, pulling out a rough but surprisingly accurate storage seal he drew, as accurate as a pencil drawn seal can be.

"Well I guess a deal is a deal, here you are Naruto." The Hokage said with an exasperated look, he had paperwork to do so he can't really test him.

'_And a council meeting the one thing I hate more than paper work, I need an aspirin.' _The Hokage thought pinching the bridge of his nose.

"Well I have a meeting I have to go to, ill check on you when it's over." Hiruzen said passing Naruto the scroll.

"Have fun with the other old farts around town!" Naruto said with a silly smile on his face.

Hiruzen gave him a deadpan look and left. Now Naruto being the hyperactive boy he was tore into the scroll with vigor, and saw it was for the Shuriken Kage Bunshin no Jutsu.

'_So I need to take a shuriken and after throwing it form the seals, think the number your chakra allows. Huh you can use it for any simple ninja tool, Interesting.' _He thought with a smirk not only starting with the Jutsu, but thinking of devilish uses for the technique.

***with Sarutobi at the council meeting***

Sarutobi sighed as he put his hat on and prepared to enter the viper pit that was the council room. As he pushed the door open he heard the chorus of civilians bitching about something or another, though he heard the loud call of kill the demon somewhere in the group. Sighing he decided to end the shit storm before everyone went deaf.

"All right now what are we here to discuss?" the Hokage asked, he already knew but it was a formality that is usually a good thing.

"It has come to our knowledge that the forbidden scroll of seals was stolen by Uzumaki Naruto and he stole techniques from it, which he used to kill a Chunin of the village." One of the domestic heads said, Sarutobi sighed, this would rile them up indefinitely.

"Sarutobi we have to take action, he killed one of our ninja, and a civilian killing a ninja warrants death!" Homura yelled out, and the entire civilian half agreed by yelling out at that, as well as a few ninja clans.

"My understanding is that GENIN Uzumaki Naruto completed a B ranked mission by killing a rogue Chunin who was trying to steal the scroll of seals last night." Sarutobi said hiding a smirk at their shocked looks.

"But Sarutobi, why would you let him be a ninja? He's dangerous!" Koharu yelled out with a disbelieveing look.

"You will refer to me as Hokage-sama in this council room, all of you. Now about Naruto being 'dangerous' he's as dangerous as any ninja in the village." The aged Hokage countered not wanting to flat out lie.

And that's how the meeting went for several hours, with the old civilians yelling for his death and the Hokage defending them, the civilians not realizing, or not caring that since Naruto was a ninja they couldn't prosecute Naruto for anything.

***with Naruto***

"Wow it's done" Naruto said with a triumphant smile staring at the wall with 30 shuriken sticking out of it, that with a simple seal, all turned into 1. "That will teach these hospital folks to try to feed me that garbage."

He looked out the window with a thoughtful look on his face, thinking _'Oji-san never said how long I had to stay did he? Besides I need to go shopping.' _

Naruto jumped out of the bed cutting away the bandages revealing he was almost completely healed. "Yikes it must have been bad to not be healed by now." Naruto said looking at a particularly bad looking claw mark right across his chest. "Now what did the book say? Oh right, I need to get some dark colors and a calligraphy pen, and make a special order."

And with that, Naruto grabbed Sarutobi's Hitai-ate and jumped out the window to the ninja supplies store.

**An/ hey everyone, heres chapter two, read review ask questions. if you want a pairing i am totally opened to sugestions (in fact i would prefer it) or somthing special from the store. If anyone says anything about an infinitely powerful sword, it will be ignored, i allready have a main weapon picked out. but can be changed if you have a strong argument.**


	3. Chapter 3

Don't own Naruto. L

**AN/ hey you guys, im updating a little early, because I finished it and just couldn't wait to post it.**

**Read on.**

**A New Look, Some Training, And a New Friend**

Naruto was jumping from rooftop to rooftop with one destination in mind, the shinobi surplus store. Usually he wasn't allowed in there due to the asshole civilian guy behind the counter. And when he was he was usually it was an elaborate plan to make it look like he was stealing. But not today, he checked his frog wallet and saw the cash from the B ranked mission and smiled, this would be enough, hopefully. He landed in an alleyway a couple of blocks away from the building and sighed.

"Time to get down to business." Naruto said making a seal.

And in a puff of smoke he looked exactly like his classmate Shino. Laughing evilly he stepped out of the alleyway and schooled his features. He walked into the store, ignoring the man behind the counter, went directly to the cloths section. He looked around and grabbed a few things and went to the changing stall. With a small pop he changed back into himself and began to change into the new outfit. He looked at himself in the mirror with a smile.

"I don't look to bad now do I?" Naruto said to himself.

Naruto was wearing a light orange martial arts gi, with mesh under cloths, and a pair of loose pants that were a darker orange. He pulled out a cloak that went down to his ankles with long loose sleeves, and buttoned it on. He tied the Hitai-ate around his head, its strands dangling behind his backed on a pair of scale arm bracers, and a pair of sandals with thick soles. He pulled the cloak off and set it down, and looked at the rest, turning around he looked at the blank back of the gi and frowned. Deciding to leave it blank for now, he changed out of the cloths, and became Shino again.

Leaving the outfit selection at the counter, he moved over to the weapons section, and grabbed several packs of shuriken, kunai, smoke bombs, a box of explosive tags, a medium sized sealing scroll, a few small ones, a pair of collapsible Windmill shuriken, and a calligraphy pen. He walked over to the counter with the gaping man at the counter watching him, Naruto almost wanted to laugh at him, why did they let a civilian work at a shinobi supplies store he would never know if a guy with a Henge could just walk in to a store and buy whatever he wants, then there's something wrong.

Naruto never knew how much stronger his Henge was, but the man behind the counter was actually a retired ninja.

He looked at the bill and saw he had a little extra, and decided to have one last look, walking around the store, when he reached the back he canceled the Henge, and began to search. While he was searching he saw a cute girl in a pink shirt Chinese shirt and hair buns sitting there, but what surprised him was that she was sealing hundreds of weapons into scrolls, getting over his shock, he looked at her again and wondered if she would be any good at helping him.

He made sure the ass at the counter wouldn't hear. "Excuse me, hair-bun-san?" he asked as uncouth as ever

Looking up she gave an annoyed look but nodded for him to continue. He asked "Can you help me find a weapon?"

The look on her face confused the blonde, her annoyed expression immediately disappeared and was replaced with a look of excitement, and who would blame her? Nobody she knew was even remotely interested in weapons. "Sure anything you had in mind? I'm Tenten by the way." The now dubbed Tenten replied.

"Uzumaki Naruto" do Naruto replied more politely than before, seeing as she didn't hate him right away he didn't want to fuck this up. "And no I don't have any particular weapon in mind." He replied with a shrug.

"All right then! Let's get you that perfect weapon!" Tenten with excitement, she vaguely remembered he was in the year under her class at the academy, and her parents warning her he was a bad kid or something. He seemed nice though, and anyone who needed her help with a weapon, wouldn't be ignored. "Could you help me finish with these though?" she asked pointing at the remaining pile of sharp metal she collected.

"Uhh, Sure Tenten." He replied

So they went around for 10 or so minutes collecting and sealing weapons. Tenten never realized Naruto was avoiding the front counter.

"Well I guess that's enough for now." Tenten said with a shrug.

"For now?" Naruto gaped, "How could you use so many… ever?"

"I'm a weapon expert; it's just my style of fighting." She replied nonchalantly, ignoring his gapping.

So the moved on to looking for a weapon for Naruto, and nothing seemed to work for him, not even the simple ninjato seemed to work, then they stumble upon it.

"It's perfect." Tenten said wit conviction .

"Are you sure?" Naruto asked.

"Yes, that one is the one!" she said with a happy smile.

She grabbed it… more like them, a bo, in two pieces, she picked them up and with a click, they were together and she held it out to him.

"If you insist..." He replied and took it from her.

"You can come to training ground 32 tomorrow if you want me to teach you." She said.

"Yeah that would be great!" Naruto nearly yelled, and quickly checked the counter man to see if he heard.

"Well now that's done, I'll see you." Tenten said leaving, "Bye, Naruto-kun." She finished with a joking wink.

"Naruto-kun?" Naruto asked to himself out loud. Giggling Tenten left carrying a giant scroll.

Sighing Naruto moved to the back of the store and Transformed into Shino again. Moving back up, Naruto reached the counter and grabbed the stuff, and sealed it into one of the scrolls; he gave the ass behind the counter the money and left without a word.

When he reached the alleyway, he just burst into laughter.

"I can't believe that worked!" Naruto chocked out between laughs. "Well I better get back and start training." He said, suddenly sobering. "I guess I should be thankful, ne Mizuki-teme?"

***With the Hokage***

Sarutobi sighed as he entered the hospital. Every civilian and about a quarter of the ninja councils wanted Naruto's head on a pike. Thankfully not enough of the ninja clans hate him. Now that he's a ninja they're the only ones that matter. Sarutobi sighed as he reached to open the door to Naruto's room when he heard one of his anbu appear, Sarutobi gave him a look that screamed _this better be important._

"The elders wish to speak with you privately." The anbu said emotionlessly.

"Dismissed." Sarutobi replied. And with that the anbu left. "Sorry I took so long Naruto..." Sarutobi began but was stopped when he saw the room was empty. Narrowing his eyes he looked around the room, spotting a piece of paper, realizing it was a note he read it, and all it said was…

**Feeling Better, Sorry about the wall.**

The Hokage looked at the wall and nearly slapped himself seeing easily 30 tiny holes in the wall. Sarutobi twitched once as he stared at the wall, and silently walked out without a word. _'Is it your job to cause me headaches Naruto?' _Sarutobi asked himself. He entered his office and was immediately hit by a wall of sound immediately thinking _'them too.'_ Sarutobi leaked a small amount of killer intent. The elders quieted down but glared at him slightly leaking their own.

"Ok, what do you want to talk to me about now?" The old man asked while rubbing the bridge of his nose.

"We have a report from the clan heads." Homura said "Each and every one of them refuses to allow Naruto to be on the same team as their children." He said with a smirk tugging at his mouth. "That means he can't be in any of this year's teams." Koharu finished openly smiling.

"If that's so, I can put him into Kakashi's team." He said, seeing their smiles evaporate.

"No the Uchiha refused as well" koharu said with a confused expression.

"The Uchiha has no right to refuse my decision." The Hokage growled.

"But he is the head of the Uchiha clan, and holds the Sharingan!" Homura yelled out.

"He is not a clan head, so he can't refuse the matter, and since the clan heads refuse, I will put him with the Uchiha and the Haruno girl." Sarutobi said, almost laughing at their gaping expressions.

"But… he shouldn't even be a ninja!" Homura Said with near desperation. "Why allow him to bring down Uchiha-sama too?"

"Because you went and got him banned from all of the clan heirs." Sarutobi said plainly.

"But you can't let the… boy corrupt Uchiha-sama!" koharu said "and as his legal guardians, cannot allow the boy to be with Uchiha-sama."

'_Damn, why did I allow them to have Sasuke, they just made him a spoiled brat. Now that I think about it, I don't think I want them near each other… that would end, badly. But since the ninja clans barred Naruto, there's no other option. Unless…' _

"So you don't want Naruto on Sasuke Uchiha's team?" The Hokage asked. Seeing them nod, he immediate thought _'Got you.' _"If you and the clans don't want me to put them with Naruto, then let's have their skills to decide where they go." Sarutobi said, seeing their shocked and confused expressions he smiled and with a blur his anbu squad appeared. "Please escort the elders home, I don't want anything to happen to them." Sarutobi said with a smile, as he watched them leave, elders glairing.

_'Now I need to call a few Jonin.'_ Sarutobi thought.

*** With Naruto***

We find Naruto in a random training ground with a storage scroll, sitting down he opened the scroll and unsealed its contents which are, a scroll on seals, two training for dummies books, the Taijutsu, and Bojutsu editions, a Jutsu scroll as a reward for actually getting these from the library… without getting caught, and many more.

***Flashback* **

Naruto was walking down the street, wondering how he should start training, which he realized he had no idea how too, so he did the first thing he thought to do, ask the ramen chefs for advice.

"So I have to go to the library?" Naruto asked with a sour expression, which disappeared as soon as the large mizo bowl of ramen appeared.

"That's right Naruto." Ayame Ichiraku replied. "There's a huge section of ninja essentials in the library. I'm sure there's a good training routine for you."

"Thanks Ayame-chan!" Naruto said pulling out his wallet and leaving a nice tip, Ayame being used to how fast he could eat by now, and watching him sprint out.

"Oh boy That Naruto." Ayame said to herself.

"Ayame, where is Naruto going?" Tenchi, Ayame's father and owner of the stand, asked.

"He's going to the library." Ayame replied simply.

'_Uh ho. This cannot end well.' _As all Tenchi could think, having known Naruto since the Hokage brought him here.

***Library*****  
><strong>Naruto walked into the library, and as soon as he did, the librarian practically jumped over the desk yelling at him incoherently.

"HEY WHAT ARE YOU YELLING AT YOU OLD BAG?" Naruto asked in the only way he can.

"YOU LITTLE DEMON SPAWN GET OUT! YOURE RUINING THE LIBRARY INVIORNMENT!" The librarian screeched at him.

Naruto, being who he was, began to argue with said librarian.

"HEY IM A NINJA YOU HAVE TO LET ME IN!" Naruto said pointing animatedly at his headband.

"I DON'T HAVE TO LET YOU IN, NOW GET OUT, OR I WILL CALL A GUARD!" The librarian said pointing at the door.

Instead of yelling back, he remembered the book, 'a tactical retreat is not giving up its working for a better opportunity.' Naruto smirked slightly, and scrunched his face up.

"DIDN'T YOU HEAR ME I SAID… what are you doing?" The librarian asked. Naruto didn't answer as he turned and ran.

"Good riddance." The librarian said.

Now Naruto remembered the infiltration theory in the book 'avoid the main floor, windows are the best bet for entrance, avoid public doors.' Naruto thought for a minute and an idea popped into his head. Smirking devilishly he made a shadow clone, and it transformed into a snake. Pulling out a kunai, he wrapped the snake around it and tossed it up to the roof. The kunai landed and the clone returned to its form and grabbed the kunai. Pulling out some string, he tied it to the kunai and hooked it on to a lightning rod. He scaled down the wall into the window and ducked behind a bookcase. Cautiously moving about he spotted the shinobi section, on the first floor, with a Chunin guard.

'_Great.' _The clone thought. The shinobi section was actually a separate room, with the guard at the door. The clone moved through the library as silently as it could, as it got closer to the door, he suddenly had an idea; he immediately turned around and went to the other end of the library, and made a clone, the first clone transformed into a centipede and the other transformed into a giant dog.

Codename centipede moved discretely toward the shinobi section, while codename dog was the distraction.

"Hey what are you doing in here?" the Chunin asked.

The clone didn't answer, but charged right at the Chunin and bit his Hitai-ate right off his forehead.

"Hey! Give that back!" the Chunin yelled, and the chase began.

Codename centipede moved under the door and released the transformation and began looking through the books and scrolls.

'_Taijutsu for dummies… the boss said something about that the same for Bojutsu. Seals, seals, seals, more seals, why does nobody get these, they're awesome!' _The clone thought packing all the scrolls and books unto a scroll, and sealing them.

The clone suddenly felt a weird sensation in his head, like remembering running around the library, with… a Hitai-ate in his mouth, and a Chunin chasing him out of the library. Wait… that was the guard… he, no his clone, dispersed in an ally way about 6 blocks away.

'_I have to get out of here before he comes back.' _The clone thought.

Looking around one last time he spotted a Jutsu scroll on the rack, _Kage shuriken no Jutsu? _Hearing the screeching librarian bitch greet the Chunin, he grabbed the scroll and ran out the door, not forgetting o close the door, and dove for cover.

The Chunin returned and took his post looking around with a no shit expression on his face, ruined by the headband covered in spit. Without looking back the clone transformed back into a centipede. The guard, seeing the chakra smoke moved to check only to see a seemingly dead bug. Sighing he picked it up and threw it out the window.

With another puff of smoke, the clone got up, glaring at the window and running off to where the boss planned for them to meet up.

***Flashback End***

As Naruto remembered, he couldn't help but think of what the shadow clone discovered.

'_That is interesting… I mean is that supposed to happen?' _Naruto wondered too himself, wishing he read the technique more thoroughly. _'It's almost perfect for infiltration' _Naruto thought, his prankster side going giddy. _'I wonder… do they remember everything?'_

Naruto grabbed a random scroll and made a shadow clone, sending the shadow clone away he grabbed the Taijutsu book and started reading. A few hours later the clone returned and gave Naruto the scroll wand dispersed. When it did Naruto felt a strange sensation in his head, it felt like a migraine, and he saw things that he did… but didn't at the same time… he tried to remember what that scroll said but all he could think of was the end and some random details. He opened up the scroll to try to make sense of what he saw, and it was like he could predict every word in the scroll before he got to it. Smiling at his little discovery, he decided to try it again. Grabbing another scroll that said 'training seals' he created a clone and handed it to him, standing Naruto picked up Bojutsu for dummies, and began to read, and picked up his iron sword.

"Let's do this." Naruto said to himself creating another clone. He looked back at the book and grabbed the staff. The clone did also, and the clumsy spar began.

***Two hours later***

Naruto sat there panting on the ground; he had battled a clone every 15 minutes. He raised his hands and stared at his hands, which were covered in shrinking bruses, and his new outfit was covered in dirt and grass stains.

'_I should have bought more than one set.' _Naruto thought dryly. He stopped because his clone on training seals had finished and dropped the scroll off. Picking it up, he skimmed it once, and liked some of these things. Two in particular was the localized gravity seal, and the chakra suppression control aid. The localized gravity seal makes the object it's written on heavier, mainly used for a person who doesn't want to wear bulky weights. The chakra suppression control aid is used to keep the chakra reserves from growing as they work on control. Mainly used for medics who need perfect control of their chakra. He made another clone and passed it another scroll.

Naruto took off his shoes, and steel mesh suit, and wrote the gravity seals on them. Pouring enough chakra into them to roughly weigh five pounds and put them back on, stretching again he felt the weight on his already sore body and sighed.

'_I won't fail again!' _Naruto thought with determination.

***With the Hokage at the Jonin meeting room***

"So you all know the new test?" the Hokage asked.

"Hai Hokage-sama" all of the Jonin in the hall yelled.

"Dismissed." The Hokage replied.

All the Jonin in the hall disappeared in puffs of smoke, swirls of leaves, etc… except for one. The man was tall, with the basic Jonin uniform along with the face mask and Hitai-ate, but the Hitai ate covered his left eye. He walked up to the Hokage

"Hokage-sama this new test seems troubling." The Jonin said with his one eye displaying question.

"Kakashi just because you don't want a team doesn't mean you can question my decision." Sarutobi said with an annoyed glare.

"That's not what I meant." The now named Kakashi replied. "The academy students won't stand a chance."

Sarutobi sighed. "This is for the best." He said simply. "The standards of this village's Genin have gone down too far. The civilian council pushed to lower the requirements for the academy so the civilian has a say in matters." He said, not even bothering to hide it. He wasn't stupid, he knew what they were up too, and he just had no "proof" of this, he could also trust Kakashi.

"I see." Kakashi replied. "So which Genin do I get last, you didn't say?" he asked.

"Uzumaki Naruto." Hiruzen replied.

End

**AN/ hey everyone! I hope you liked it! Thank you for the reviews, and I know those who suggested didn't get the weapon they said, but the story is still young. As for a few questions I got, I realize I've been vague on details, but all will be explained in one way or another.**

**For one… Kyuubi doesn't have a sharingan. **

**Another… there is no decision on pairing, or whether or not there will be a main pairing.**

**Ask what you like, read, review, see ya next time.**


	4. Chapter 4

**Hey there readers! heres chapter four, before we get started, i have to say now that the test for genin is meant to be more challingeing, and the poll isnt closed yet, the team doesnt arrive today.**

**The True Genin Test**

Three days after that busy day, we find Naruto sitting on the edge of his clearing taking a small break from the Taijutsu training, and more specifically working on a seal in paper. Though hard at work, Naruto's mind drifted into two days before, his first real training session with his new friend.

***flashback***

Naruto walked toward the clearing of the training ground, carrying his new staff, wondering what actual training from another person was like. When he reached the clearing at Tenten's training ground. When suddenly he came upon a sight that no one could see without nearly vomiting. He saw a man, but the scary part was the thing he was wearing, it was… green. He slowly took every detail of the man in, as if it was a disaster zone.

_'Bowl cut, spandex, eyebrows, leg warmers, this guy is a walking freak show!' _Naruto thought to himself. After thinking that there was no possible way this could get worse, he heard a yosh, turning away, he actually yelped in surprise.

_'ANOTHER ONE?' _he screamed inside his head as he saw a shorter version of the man, in exactly the same outfit, minus flak jacket, point at him. He almost wanted to run away, but then he saw the other two in the training ground. One he recognized as Tenten, and the other, was a guy with white eyes and a loose outfit, and what he could tell from here, a Sasuke ego. Before he could continue his observations, the two spandex clad ninja were in front of him.

"Hello my youthful comrade!" the older one started, "what brings you to this training ground on this youthful day?" he asked showing his impossibly white teeth.

"uhh…" Naruto replied smoothly. He thanked Kami when Tenten came over.

"I met him at the shinobi supplies store." She explained smoothly, "he helped me with restocking my weapons and I offered to train him in bojutsu." she finished.

"Ah, what a youthful thing to do!" the taller one said, "I am Tenten's Jonin sensei Mite Guy what is your name?" he asked.

Naruto being who he was forgot what he was talking to, and began his introduction.

"I AM NARUTO UZUMAKI! THE GODAIME HOKAGE OF KONOHAGAKURE NO SATO! DATTEBAYO!" he yelled to the heavens, he heard a deep breath, and his psyche was totally shattered.

And Gai, being who he was, made his comment. "YOSH! YOUR YOUTH IS INSPIREING NARUTO-KUN! I WILL DO 1000 PUSH UPS FOR YOUR YOUTH!" he yelled scaring Naruto back to this world.

"GAI SENSEI! I WILL DO 2000 PUSH UPS FOR NARUTO-KUN'S YOUTH!" the younger one said.

"LEE!"  
>"GAI SENSEI!"<p>

"LEE!"  
>"GAI SENSEI!"<p>

"LEE!"  
>"GAI SENSEI!"<p>

He vaguely heard the cry of Tenten to look away over the yelling. But then he saw a sunset, and the two ran at each other, Naruto was unable to look away, but he wondered one thing

_'Why do things like this keep happening to me?'_ and all he knew was darkness.

***Flashback End***

After that traumatic experience, he trained with Tenten for a few hours, mainly telling him how to NOT hit himself with the staff. But beyond that, nothing much happened besides physical training and Jutsu practice, he read up on a few seals,

The simple explosive tag was done well enough to not randomly explode. He found a few more that were less dangerous and got them down. He found a Jutsu in the book he got form the Old Man, it was scribbled into the margin by who he assumed was this MN, it was simple enough, use chakra to stick a pre-drawn seal inconspicuously on a person, though the seal was severely weekend in strength.

Naruto's musings were interrupted by the sound of a shuriken flying. He made a wide jump to the side, and drew a kunai.

"Uzumaki Naruto" he heard a voice say, "It's time for your test" the voice said ominously. Turning around, he saw that the voice came from a man. The man wore the standard leaf shinobi uniform. Naruto deduced that this man was easily a Jonin in rank, and a veteran one at that, due to the mask being worn, which is usually to hide scars, and his Hitai-ate slanted over his left eye, leaving only his right eye and upper cheek visible.

"You are to land one hit on my torso or head to pass while I only fight defensively. If you don't come at me with the intent to kill, you'll never even touch me." The masked man said in that same ominous tone.

With those words Naruto immediately charged the man preparing to stab him, only to find his arm in a bar, with his own kunai pointed at the back of his head. Naruto stared down in shock at what just happened.

"I didn't say go" the Jonin said nonchalantly, he pushed Naruto away and tossed the kunai into a tree branch. "By the way… you have till noon." He said. "Ready…" the Jonin said reaching into his weapon pouch. "Start." He said. As he said this he pulled out a familiar orange book and began to read.

Naruto just stared at the Jonin, but deciding not to give up a distracted target, and completely forgetting the ass whooping he had earlier, charged strait at the Jonin. Only to end up on his ass again.

_'What the hell is this guy?' _Naruto thought, deciding to take things up a notch, he pulled his sleeves down revealing a pair of storage seals. He poured chakra into them both and in two small puffs and a click his Bo was ready for action.

The Jonin seemed a little surprised by this, but just turned back to his book. Naruto was getting annoyed by this, and charged at him, he attacked ferociously but the Jonin simply dodged each swipe and jab.

_'Surprise asshole!' _Naruto yelled in his head as he pumped chakra into a seal that was already on the staff, causing it to separate into three segments by metal loops. Again the Jonin looked surprised, but blocked the surprise attack with his metal plated glove, and the Sansetsukon dropped to the ground which Naruto retracted into its Bo form.

_'I'm impressed.'_ Kakashi thought to himself. _'That would have worked on most. Though, most wont loose if a blow connects either.' _Kakashi dodged another attempt at clubbing him, figuring he wanted to move on, he waited and when Naruto made another stab Kakashi dodged and looped his arms around and double palm strikes the staff, one to the end, and the other near Naruto's hand, sending it spiraling into the woods.

Naruto was shocked, annoyed, angry, and nervous at the same time, he was running out of tricks, he had a few more with the staff, but the Jonin sending it catapulting away, it wouldn't really matter. So Naruto did all he could think of doing. He jumped back and preformed a few seals and pulled out some shuriken.

**"Shuriken Kage Bunshin No Jutsu" **Naruto yelled out.

The shuriken multiplied into nearly fifty and hurtled toward the Jonin like a razor wall of iron. Naruto's eyes widened and he nearly screamed when shuriken made impact, believing he killed him. And it was too his amazement that the Jonin bursts into a puff of smoke, revealing log with 20 shuriken completely covering one side.

"That was good." He heard from directly behind him. "But not good enough, **Leaf ultimate Taijutsu, 1000 years of pain.**" And all Naruto felt was searing pain in everything waist down.

"SON OF A BITCH!" Naruto screamed as he sailed through the air as he landed in a pond.

_'I wonder if I was too harsh.'_ Kakashi thought to himself, as he walked toward the edge of the water. Which in retrospect wasn't a very good idea. Suddenly there were several splashes, turning into hundreds. And Kakashi's eyes… eye stared wide at the wall of orange that surrounded him.

_'This one has absolutely no tact does he?' _Kakashi asked himself almost rhetorically.

**"We'll get you for that Jonin-san." **All the shadow clones said at once,

"That's right; I didn't even tell you my name did I?" Kakashi asked, ignoring the taunt of the clones.

The shadow clones looked around for a minute as if thinking about it. **"no." **the clone army replied simply.

"Well that's what's been bothering me… I knew I forgot something." Kakashi said.

**"Enough talk. Time to lose." **the clones said, charging him.

"Well anyway, I'm Kakashi Hatake." The now dubbed Kakashi replied, and right after he said this there was a ring. "looks like time is up." He said

All the Naruto clones just stared ahead with gaping expressions. And they all suddenly dispersed leaving the real Naruto standing there staring at him.

"All right, now I will have lunch and we can try again." Kakashi said with his lone visible eye curving up into an upside-down u. "well that and…"

***a few minutes later***

Naruto was pissed, more or less; this Jonin is happily eating his lunch, while SOMEHOW not taking of his mask. But the real issue was he was tied to a training post, forced to watch him eat, while he had been training since dawn, and was genuinely starving.

Naruto's thoughts were in turmoil as well, he was unsuccessful at even touching the Jonin once, and he threw everything he had at him too

_'Well not everything.' _Naruto thought to himself, and immediately feeling a phantom pain in his chest, and that's when it hit him, in the tactics book AND the shinobi theory book said 'brute force will only ever get you an ass kicking. Ok so he may have paraphrased a bit, but that's beside the point. _'Ok so I know I need a plan. So what should that plan be… fuck my life.' _Naruto thought to himself, realizing he wouldn't come up with a good plan without inspiration, or food.

Naruto looked up at the Jonin who was slowly eating his lunch, staring at his book…

_'THAT'S IT!' _Naruto thought with glee.

"All done." Kakashi said, he pulled out a kunai and tossed it, nicking the rope. Naruto watched as the rope fell away harmlessly from him. And as soon as it was gone Naruto yanked Kakashi's kunai out of the log, and tossed it at him making the seals he whispered **'Kunai Kage Bunshin no jutsu'**

The one kunai in a puff of smoke turned into seven and hurtled at the Jonin in a wide ark, who was replaced with a log as soon as they hit, and as soon as the log became visible, Naruto bolted into the woods.

_'I wonder where he's going.' _Kakashi thought from the tree, deciding to follow him, he jumped from tree to tree to where he could sense Naruto's uncontrolled chakra._ 'what is he doing… SON OF A BITCH!' _Kakashi thought seeing an explosive tag floating through the air, he used a substitution and the explosion went off, incinerating the poor log that was the receiver for an attack. _'That was too close.' _Kakashi thought to himself, as he hid in a tree, waiting for more.

***with Naruto, a few minutes before.***

Naruto was trying to use shinobi travel to get away from Kakashi as fast as possible, but was having trouble preparing and moving at the same time.

_'Shit… ok so this will go here and these will go… crap I dropped one!' _Naruto thought seeing he let an explosive note slip away. _'that could give me away… oh well, better just get rid of it.' _He thought and with a seal and a boom, he moved on to finish with the traps. _'All right, everything is in place, except…' _Naruto thought and made a seal, briefly noting he'll suck even more if this plan doesn't work, and with that, and the creation of over 50 shadow clones he said, "you know what to do, only one of you has to touch him for this to work." Naruto passed out several pens, that he made with the Shuriken Kage Bunshin no Jutsu and his ink and made the final preparations.

***with Kakashi***

Kakashi was annoyed with himself for getting farther behind than he wanted, he had no idea how Naruto knew he was right there but he would ask later, Kakashi continued to leap through the trees, and found Naruto in a small clearing, with his Bo and two shadow clones.

"Ne, Naruto… how did you know where I was?" Kakashi asked.

Naruto ignored him but mainly because he was screaming in his head about it still not being ready. _'time to buy some time for the rest to be in position.'_ Naruto thought to himself. And with a nod to his doppelgangers, they all charged with a yell. Only to end up the same as before, Naruto's shadow clones weren't too lucky as they were taken out by Kakashi with little effort, as Naruto charged in, he attacked with his Bo which was blocked by a kunai, with a click the staff was in too pieces and the other was aimed to brain the masked man. Only to be caught with his gloved hand. They stared at each other for a second, and a smirk appeared on Naruto's face… "Kage Bunshin no Jutsu!" and a puff of smoke appeared right between the locked opponents, revealing a shadow clone which made an opened palm strike at the Jonin.

_'Shit!' _Kakashi thought to himself for a moment, _'can't let go, he may brush me with a staff, cant substitute, he's touching me, block it is.' _Kakashi kicked the shadow clone's wrist away and wrapped his leg around his neck.

_'Phase one complete, phase two now!' _The clone thought to himself and right then he dispersed. And Naruto jumped away.

_'He fell for it,' _Naruto thought _'he thought I used actual shadow clone technique, thank you henge!' _Naruto smiled at the memory, _'good, he's been marked, I hope this works.' _Naruto thought as he pulled out several shuriken and kunai. Naruto charged most of his remaining chakra into the Jutsu, "Taju Buki Kage Bunshin no Jutsu!" and Naruto threw the tools at the Jonin and in several puffs of smoke there was a solid wall of razor iron that made the first look wimpy heading straight toward the Jonin and with a thud, there were numerous sharp weapons sticking out of a log. Naruto turned to a tree to his left and with a seal, there was a 'what the hell' from the tree and an explosion. And a smoldering log flew out. Without even looking Naruto made the tiger seal again followed by another explosion.

Kakashi was confused as hell, one this dead last seems to know exactly where he is, even when he substitutes with something across the clearing, Naruto somehow immediately knew. Another was that there were homemade explosive notes EVERYWHERE, and third, he's actually cutting it close.

After an hour or so, the clearing was about 10m wider, and a tired looking Kakashi and Naruto.

"You still haven't hit me." Kakashi said, still confused as hell, Naruto on the other hand was getting excited.

_'Phase 3 begins now!'_ Naruto thought and suddenly disappeared into a puff of smoke.

_'THAT WAS A SHADOW CLONE?' _Kakashi nearly screamed, he never would have known, he couldn't stay in one place, due to the impromptu shinobi style game of hide and explode.

**"CHARGE!" **he heard turning, he saw an army of shadow clones charge him all intent to beat him up.

_'I'm using a suppression seal, I'm nearly out of chakra… if I cancel the seal, he'll pass automatically!' _Kakashi thought to himself, _'wait, I got one.' _Kakashi thought to himself, he made the seals and whispered. "Magen: Narakumi no Jutsu."

All of the shadow clones suddenly stopped and stared ahead. _'I'm pretty much out of chakra now.' _Kakashi sighed as he looked around. _'Damn… he totally switched gears on me,' _Kakashi thought knowing that this was a rather elaborate plan. Suddenly there was a freakish spike in chakra, and Kakashi looked to see Naruto with chakra similar to flames surrounding him.

"Wait, is this… SHIT!" Kakashi yelled as he ran too Naruto as he suddenly passed out from that Jutsu. Kakashi picked him up and with a seal, was off to the hospital.

***with Naruto in the Genjutsu***

Naruto stood for a minute as leaves swirled around him, and entered a daze. When he woke up, he was in a place he never wanted to see again. The massive room with the ominous blue glow from the pipes, and the red mist from the cage, oh that terrible cage, which held that terrible monster. Suddenly the eye appeared again, that same eye that held malevolence beyond compare. And that's when he did pee himself, when the tag tore itself in half and the bars flew opened. Naruto stood frozen for a second as the beast moved out of its cage. Naruto's hands were already halfway through the seals, as if they had minds of their own, suddenly the clearing returned, and then he was out cold from the pain.

***in Naruto's subconscious* **

There in that same sewer sat the sleeping beast, the dull glow of the pipes were drowned out by the thick red mist. There was a groan in the pipes and a flash of blue light, and the creature was awake looking around frantically, and in its feral mad eyes the tomoe seals in them appeared in them, the three in one, and the one remaining in the other slowly disappeared.

***the next day***

Several Jonin stood at attention in the Hokage tower's Jonin meeting room. The Hokage looked at each of them with pride in his old eyes. Each for their strength and duty to protecting the ones they care about. He looked at the clock and saw it was time to begin, he stood and all the Jonin stood straighter.

"Good morning." The Hokage started. "This, as you all know is the meeting for the new Genin team placement." A chorus of Hai Hokage-sama was heard, Hiruzen swore he heard a YOSH from the back but brushed it off, "now down to business, Jonin, I need your reports for the Genin you tested." He said.

"The graduates Saya, Suiyuma, and Jiro failed Hinata passes." Kurenai Yuhi, one of the volunteers for Jonin sensei said professionally.

"The graduates Hattori and Gensuke fail, and Ino, Shikamaru, and Sakura pass." Asuma Sarutobi said, his cigarette hanging out of his mouth, getting a disapproving look from… everyone."The graduates Vajra, Maka, Asura, and Shao fail, and Naruto pass." Kakashi Hatake said lazily looking up from his book, earning the same disapproving looks from everyone who cared. And a second later a look of realization appeared on everyone followed by displeasure on most, anger on few, and smiles on fewer.

"Kuro, Shiroi, and Gensui fails, and Choji and Shino passed." Genma Shiranui said a senbon hanging out of his mouth.

"Yuki, Nitara, Raizen, and Lao fail, and Kiba and Sasuke passed." Hayate Gekko coughed out, his voice barely a whisper.

_'so I only need three sensei this year,'_ Sarutobi thought. _'Kakashi, Kurenai, and Asuma are the best choice.'_

"Kakashi, Kurenai, Asuma, Genma, and Hayate come with me too my office after the meeting is done, we can discuss the teams there." He said.

***After The Jonin Meeting***

Kakashi, Kurenai, and Asuma sat in the Hokage's office waiting in silence for the Hokage to show up. Standing up, they all bowed to the Hokage as he entered the room, and sat down.

"Let's begin." The Hokage started.

"I guess ill begin." Kurenai started, due to nobody else starting. "Hinata is extremely timid, in her speech, body language, and fighting. But she was able to get me before the test ended." Kurenai said with a shrug. "Her Taijutsu is average… for a Hyuga, and her Byakugan is good for tracking or sensing." She finished.

"I guess I'll go next," the cigarette wielding Jonin said, "Sakura and Ino aren't really great, they're just better than average, and Shikamaru is a smart cookie, but is good at hiding it." He finished taking a puff.

"Choji is in fact a power house, good at hand to hand, especially after I called him fat," Genma said with a sheepish look. "And that Shino kid's bugs are killer, they almost got me." He finished.

"Kiba is a good Taijutsu fighter, for his age, and Sasuke is a prodigy if I've ever seen one, I haven't seen a kid use the fireball Jutsu since the war." Hayate said biting back a cough.

Everyone looked at Kakashi, waiting to hear how the dead last of this year's Genin class managed to be the first Genin to get passed by Kakashi EVER.

Kakashi sighed and began his report, "Naruto's Taijutsu is subpar, but not as bad as I was lead to believe, he is capable of wielding a Bo staff," this caught the Hokage's attention, seeing as he was a master of Bojutsu himself. "His Ninjutsu is… incredible for a Chunin, he preformed 2 B ranked Jutsu, an A ranked Jutsu, and a S ranked Jutsu during the test," this shocked pretty much everyone, Sarutobi because he told Naruto to not use that technique unless his life was in danger, what was Kakashi doing? "and after lunch, he proved he has an… unusual tactical capacity." Kakashi finished. Turning the page of his book, only for his eye to widen a fraction,

_'so that's how he did it… but when… oh yeah.' _Kakashi thought, remembering the initial attack at the second clearing, with the shadow clone without seals. _'he marked me.'_ Kakashi thought looking at the small seal on his icha icha book with the kanji for track on it.

"And he was able to track me using this." Kakashi said holding out his book, revealing the seal hidden on the inside cover.

"Incredible," the Hokage said out loud, "he has learned how to make and apply a seal mid fight… before I forget… what were the circumstances that Naruto used the S ranked Jutsu."

Kakashi explained how he used the demonic illusion, hell viewing technique on Naruto to stall for time, and that Naruto is in the hospital now.

"All right, I need to check on him, we will select teams later, think about this hard." Sarutobi said.

And with that, and several puffs of smoke, they were gone. Sarutobi got up and in his own puff of smoke, he was heading toward the hospital.

**my final is in a week... so probably no update for a little while, and the supression seal was forceing kakashi down to 10% of his full power, all the jonin had them. **

**another thing is sasuke is a protigy by the standard of then, itachi and kakashi were truely protigal.**


	5. Chapter 5

**DON'T OWN NARUTO OR ANY OF THE STUFF THE OWNER DOES ANYWAY! All I have are my ideas, and this laptop… actually it's a gift -_-.**

**AN**

**The hospital again? The horror of D ranks! **

Naruto's eyes slowly cracked opened, immediately to be shut from the bright white sealing.  
><em>'Wait… not again.' <em>Naruto thought with a sigh, opening his eyes, ignoring the burning, he looked around and spotted his cloths. They were folded and… clean? _'The old man…' _Naruto silently thanked him for the gesture, and got up on wobbly legs. He was able to get his bottom cloths on without much dificulty, but the weighted cloths and pieces of armor were a bit too much for him, so he sat back down and pulled out a pencil. A few minutes later he jumped out the window, with a roughly drawn seal with his cloths inside, and made for his apartment.

A few close calls with the roof jumping, he reached the door, and popped it open, and caught the familiar scent of spoiled milk in the room. He reached the kitchen area and nearly gagged at the sight of the carton that he left out before the academy exam.

'_I should have come home instead of sleeping out, Kami.'_ Naruto thought as he dumped the milk, which was in every intent and purpose pudding, and he suddenly realized something… did he pass the test or not? He was starving, but he couldn't wait. He ran as fast as he could to the Hokage tower.

***Hiruzen's "private time"***

Hiruzen Sarutobi was having his siesta time, or now being called catching up on paperwork time, due to an unnamed blonde.

'_Damn you Naruto, you got me so far behind in my work.'_ He thought indignantly, so much for unnamed, and he stared longingly at his student's orange masterpiece. The projectile alarm went off in his mind, and he turned around to see a different blob of orange rocket toward the window, he lashed his arm out and pulled the window open just in time for the blonde to fly in and slam into his pile of papers.

'_Damn it…' _the Hokage thought. Naruto crawled out of the just finished stack of papers, and completely ignoring the disarray, he ran over to the Hokage and began what seemed to be a cross examination.

"How did I do Oji-san?" Naruto asked.

"Naruto what are you-" the Hokage began.

"I failed didn't I?" Naruto said, not letting him finish.

"Naruto I-" he tried to begin.

"I'm going back to the academy aren't I?" Naruto said with growing panic.

"Naruto-" he tried again, with annoyance growing in his voice.

"I can't go back to the academy Oji-san! They'll never let me leave!" Naruto said, in a full panic.

"NARUTO CALM DOWN!" the Hokage yelled, stopping everyone in the building and causing them to wonder what could possibly make the Hokage yell. "You passed Naruto… and Kakashi said you did exceptionally." He said in a grandfatherly voice.

"But I didn't even get close to touching him! He said if I didn't hit him, I would be sent back!" Naruto said in confusion and disappointment.

Hiruzen sighed and with a smile, he patted Naruto on the head, "Naruto, if you decisively hit a Jonin when you're just fresh out of the academy, I would make you a Chunin right then." He began, "I'll tell you a secret, none of your class mates got even close to hitting their Jonin." He said with a small smile.

"So I'm the only one that passed?" Naruto asked curiously.

"Not quite Naruto." He replied. "Tell me… would you throw absolutely everything at a fellow leaf ninja unless you were put into such a high stress, do or die situation?" he asked curiously.

"Uhh." Naruto thought for a minute, would he? He had plenty of tricks hidden around, but would he have been actually tested by completing some random objective? "I guess not." Naruto said, almost unsure of the answer.

"Exactly the point Naruto, it was to test you and your classmate's limits." The Hokage replied, sitting down. "Now go home and get ready for team selections tomorrow." He said, and with that, Naruto was off.

Hiruzen turned around, and he twitched once at his onetime organized stacked paperwork. _'I'm never going to get any work done with you a ninja, am I?'_ he thought as he beant down to pick them up. Suddenly there was a knock at the door. His Anbu guard said two words that he didn't want to hear, "council meeting, Hokage-sama." His Anbu posted outside the door said, not realizing the implications. The next thing that happened was something rather unusual for a kage, the Hokage hadn't done what he did next since his early years training under Tobirama Senju... he let out a deep groan that sounded like he had been given the cat catching mission again.

***the next day***

Naruto's personal nemesis sat there in his room, it sat waiting… and waiting… for the exact moment to spring on the unsuspecting boy.

'_7:58… 7:59… NOW!'_ it thought before hell broke loose.

**BEEP BEEP BEEP! **The bane of Naruto's existence exploded into a menacing noise, slowly getting louder as Naruto didn't turn it off.

"AHHHHHH" Naruto screamed out, falling out of the bed. The alarm-clock continued to wail out its terrible sound.

With an angry shout from the blonde, and a poof of smoke from his wrist, there was a loud…

**SMASH! **

And his opponent was no more…

Naruto glared at the smoldering remains of the evil machine, and realization dawned on him… _'what time did it say?' _he asked himself. _'it was set to… SHIT IM GOING BE LATE!' _Naruto exploded out of his room and got dressed as fast as physically possible.

A few minutes and failed attempts later, he ran into the "kitchen" and grabbed a ramen. A painful 3 minutes later, he was inhaling ramen across the roof0tops toward the academy. Though it wasn't easy, he got to the academy only ten minutes late… only to find the laziest guy in existence, and his crush's blonde rival yelling at said lazy bum… and no one else.

"Umm where is everyone?" Naruto asked his fellow loud blonde.

"Everyone left with their Jonin ten minutes ago, and where the hell have you been? Sure I was surprised that you actually passed, but who cares, our sensei is later than you and we have no idea…" and she continued to complain like she was born to do so, and Naruto immediately felt just like Shikamaru… and with a bam and a groan, he was just like the pineapple hared boy.

***Two Hours Later* **

Here we find our merry band a few hours later, Ino had run out of gas an hour ago and decided to follow the two boys' leads, five minutes after that both Naruto and Shikamaru got up and passed a small fist bump in victory and waited for their sensei.

"so who are the teams?" Naruto asked, trying to keep the demon talking machine from waking up.

"Sakura, Sasuke, and Shino are team 10 and Hinata, Kiba, and Choji is team 8" he whispered, for the same reason.

And with that they sat with an awkward silence…

"So how's the weather?" Naruto asked in an attempt to keep conversation.

After a moment Naruto looked over to Shikamaru and got a "you can't be serious" look.

"… Troublesome…" he said, his head plopped onto his desk.

And with that they waited… and waited… and waited, finally…

"Hey sorry I'm late, a black cat crossed my path and I had to take the long way." Kakashi said popping his head into the door.

"y… y… you?" Naruto questioned in a trembling voice, sadly this woke up Sakura's twin who immediately questioned…

"Are you our Jonin sensei? Where the hell have you been? We've been here for two hours!" and so on.

After that Naruto got over his shock and stared at the man seeing what he would say

"Hehe well I walked into an old lady on the way and had to carry her groceries home." He said blatantly changing his story. Naruto's mouth just dropped open at the blatant lie, and it dropped even lower as Ino seemed to accept the answer.

"…troublesome…" Guess who!

"Whatever, rooftop, five minutes" Kakashi said, as he had lost interest and decided to get them moving, and with that he disappearing in a puff.

"Well let's get this over with…" Shikamaru said getting up, he turned back to see the disbelieving face of his new team mate. "… troublesome…" and with that they left.

When they arrived at the roof, Kakashi was thankfully on time, so they all sat down and he began.

"All right, let's get started introduce yourselves." Kakashi began.

A pregnant pause followed… then finally "how?" Naruto asked as uncouth as ever.

"All right how about this... I'm Kakashi Hatake. Things I like and things I hate... I don't feel like telling you that. My dreams for the future... never really thought about it. As for my hobbies... I have lots of hobbies."

'_You can't be serious.' _They all thought.

"Like that." Kakashi said.

After a moment, Ino decided to speak up. "I'm Yamanaka Ino I like Sasuke, flowers, purple, and shopping… I dislike Sakura and lazy people… My dream for the future is to win Sasuke and beat Sakura… my hobbies are shopping and well that's it." She said.

While Kakashi was still on laziness, Naruto decided to go. "I'm Naruto Uzumaki! I like ramen, Sakura-chan, training, and Jutsu… I dislike Sasuke-teme, the three minutes of cooling down time before ramen can be enjoyed, and someone else… my dream is to become the Hokage and gain the respect of the village… my hobbies are training and ramen…" Naruto said proudly.

'_How can ramen be a hobby?' _Ino asked herself.

"I'm Shikamaru Nara… my likes are sleep and clouds… my dislikes are blondes" Naruto and Ino glare "Women," Ino id getting mad, "and most of all, blonde women…" steam is coming of her ears and she is preparing to send him to nappy time. " my dream for the future is Have two children, first a girl, then a boy. Retire after my daughter is married and my son becomes a successful ninja, and spend the rest of my life playing shōgi or Go. Then die of old age before my wife." They were all surprised by how specific it was. "My hobbies are the same as my likes." He finished.

'_Lazy ass.' _Ino thought.

'_I like this kid!' _Kakashi thought.

"What now?" Naruto asked, causing all of them to sweat drop.

"Well since we all had the tests, I guess we're going to get a mission." Kakashi said scratching the back of his head.

***mission hall***

They all arrived at the mission hall a few minutes later to find a nearly empty basket of scrolls with D rank labels on them.

"All right we'll do this one." Kakashi said, moving to the Chunin on duty, giving Shikamaru the scroll.

They all read it and shrugged at it. How hard could finding a cat be?

***Somewhere in rice country***

In a dark room made of hardened clay sat a man. Not much could be seen of this man because only one candle was lit. the door opened to reveal another man, who immediately closed the door and got on one knee in submission.

"He failed his mission master." The kneeling man said.

"So Mizuki is dead?" the man questioned.

"Yes master, I didn't even have to finish him" the other replied.

"Really?" he questioned with a surprised voice, "My seal failed to defend him? That's surprising… did the old fool finish him?"

"No, high adrenalin caused his seal to overload his system." the other said. "But, I was at the trade off… and a Chunin and an academy drop out forced him to use the unstable level two seal."

"How did that happen?" the man questioned turning toward the other man.

"It was the boy… he used a Jutsu that shouldn't be possible for anyone besides a Kage." He said. "Mugen Chakra no Jutsu, he used easily 3 times as much his reserves are capable of and forced Mizuki into cardiac arrest."

Very interesting Kabuto-kun." The man replied.

"There's something else…" the now named Kabuto said, "you may like to know…his chakra… it was close to one of your old projects."

"Which one?" he asked.

"Shintai enerugi, Orochimaru-sama…" Kabuto replied.

Orochimaru turned around completely revealing his golden eyes, and a smile was all he gave.

***back in the leaf***

"How could it possibly be this hard to catch a cat?" Naruto yelled out indignantly as he carried the clawing monster toward the mission hall.

"Naruto don't talk like that around the client." Kakashi said, "She might dock your pay."

After they dropped of the cat with the daimyo's wife, Kakashi said, "We'll set up a schedule for training and missions as we go, just meet up at training ground 7 at 9:00 tomorrow.

And with that they all split up and went home, some wondering how their new lives will be like, and one wondering where he will find some good ointment and Band-Aids.

"Hey Shikamaru…" Ino began, and he looked over to her. "Was Naruto wearing that jumpsuit?"

Shikamaru thought for a second, and his eyes widened and he shook his head.

**Next time, Naruto and his team mates finally get a true ninja mission, and what of the other graduates? Next week, Naruto's first steps!**

**AN/ Hey people, sorry for the late update, but I had final exams and not a lot of time to right it… I know its way shorter than most of my previous chapters, but it's the end of the first ark… which I'm coining as "Becoming a ninja**** tm****" haha next is the first REAL mission,**


	6. Chapter 6

**Don't own Naruto.**

**Naruto's First Steps!**

Light shined over the leaf village as a new day broke over the city. A little over a month has passed since the new graduates had been put into teams but they had been assimilated into the system and were now doing steady D rank missions. But that is about to change today.

***With Naruto***

Naruto yawned as he waited for his ramen to cool off, pondering his training. He noticed how much stronger he was in pure physical terms. Things he used to do that would usually drain him were nothing anymore. He was no better in actual Taijutsu though, but his Bo Jutsu had improved greatly thanks to his teacher. So had his reaction time… He was glad he could train with Tenten on the weekends, because she also helped him with ninja tools and his basics, which were still subpar. He has a good friendship/rivalry with Lee, which would run circles around him in Taijutsu anyway, but it was still fun.

Naruto inhaled his ramen and walked out the door with all his training equipment in tow. Due to today being a light mission day, he could train more… or so he thought…

Naruto began with usual light exercise and after that he pulled off all his weighted training clothes.

***with Kakashi***

Kakashi was watching Naruto train… not to be creepy, but it was a light mission day, which was usually spent by Jonin sensei watching their students train on their own… in this case student.

'_I wish the others would train more… I'm going to have to scare them aren't I?' _Kakashi questioned himself for a minute… being as that's how Gai does it… never mind.

'_why is he taking his weights of?' _Kakashi asked himself. He had known for a while about this, he was genuinely worried that Gai had rubbed off on him from prolonged exposure… just like Lee… poor, poor Lee.

***with Naruto***

"Kage Bunshin no Jutsu!" Naruto called out, and there were two shadow clones in front of him. He pulled his weights back on, as well as his scale arm guards, and with one word it began, "Go."

***With Kakashi***

Kakashi watched in amazement as Naruto began a rather violent spar with the clones. And he slowly began to understand each piece of it.

'_He made the clones with no weights, and he made two to cut his chakra into thirds… wait… he can't know the secret of shadow clones can he? He can find any weak point in his taijutsu this way.' _Kakashi began to appreciate Naruto's creativity even more than he did after that Tora mission…

'_That Shadow clone transformed into a string… genius.'_

So the spar continued for around a half an hour, until Naruto got knocked on his ass for the final time today.

The two clones dispersed, and Naruto got up and stripped down to his boxers and went over to the small waterfall that most training grounds have and sat under it to take a small shower.

***with Naruto***

He sighed as the water worked the kinks out of his muscles. And thought about the missions, and began to question why he was training so hard. He always came up with the Mizuki answer, but the missions he was getting were throwing him off.

'_Why would I train if I'm never going to use it?'_ He thought.

***with Kakashi***

'_Oh crap I recognize that look…'_ Kakashi thought.

He had seen it in other Genin around the village, when they lose their zeal of training and get themselves killed on a higher mission. _'I guess I shouldn't wait.' _Kakashi thought to himself as he made a seal and disappeared with a swirl of leaves.

***with Naruto* **

Naruto pulled his clothes back on and went to his scroll. He grabbed a book that said 'basic Juinjutsu' because it turns out, that his own creation is technically a curse seal, due to it having an inverse negative effect on the person it is applied to.

What allows the user of this seal to track someone is that it's really a seal that contains his chakra and leaks it out. One can track their own chakra much easier than someone else's, and with that he was able to track Kakashi even at the high speeds of the substitution Jutsu. What made it a curse seal was that it not only leaked chakra out so he could scene it, it leaked chakra into the object it was placed on and after a few tests, the Hokage said it actually disrupted chakra flow when it was tested directly on a volunteer.

So Naruto decided to read up on it in his spare time while they painted another fence, or whatever remedial chore they are forced to do.

So he grabbed a book and went toward training ground 7.

***Training ground 7***

Naruto arrived at the training ground at the usual time to find it as usual empty. Kakashi is never less than an hour late, so his teammates have gotten into the habit of not being particularly on time either.

So he went over a few seals in his head as he waited for his teammates and sensei to finally show up. After about ten minutes Ino showed up, and after a half an hour Shikamaru showed up, and in the end Kakashi showed up after an hour and a half prompting Ino to yell at him for being late, which was brushed off by pretty much everybody. After calming Ino, and waking Shikamaru up, they made for the mission hall to get the chore of the day. When they arrived, they were met with the sight of the Hokage and Iruka at the front desk.

"Good morning team seven, are you ready for your mission today?" Iruka said in a too cheery voice, one he had his coffee over two hours ago, and two his favorite ex student was here.

"Yes Iruka-san, what's opened?' Kakashi asked with an almost unnoticeable glance toward the Hokage.

"Well Kakashi, it seems that your team has done enough D rank missions to elevate to a C rank mission." The Hokage bullshitted, the only reason there was an actual limit was to keep some teams around to do the D rank missions the civilian populace kept putting in.

"Really Oji-san?" Naruto asked hopefully.

"Naruto be respectful to the Hokage!" Iruka yelled beating Ino to the punch.

"Anyway!" Hiruzen said loudly, stopping anyone else from talking, "we have a request for an escort for a bridge builder from wave country that should be good enough for your team… Kakashi?" he asked, to which Kakashi nodded dismissively. "Ok good now be ready tomorrow to meet the client." He finished.

"ok team, get ready for a week long mission, pack accordingly." Kakashi said motioning them out.

"Kakashi, we need to talk." Hiruzen said,

"Go ahead team; well meet tomorrow at the… east gate?" Kakashi asked looking toward the Hokage, who nodded.

And with that the three young Genin left the room each was thinking generally about the mission.

'_Eat it forehead, I get a C Rank before you!' _Ino thought cheerfully.

'_Kami, I'm not going to get this past mom, sorry clouds… what a drag.'_ The laziest boy in existence thought to himself glumly.

'_Finally a test to see if my training is really paying off… I got to go say goodbye to everyone.'_ Naruto thought to himself, and stopped. He hadn't realized it this past month, but he finally had some friends. He wouldn't call his teammates real friends, he and Shikamaru were all right but Ino was "don't talk to me, and I won't beat you to death" kind of thing going. But Team Guy was close now. He and Tenten were close friends, as well as Lee, even Guy could be classified as a friend… sort of.

"I'll go tell them about my mission… but first some lunch." Naruto said to himself, realizing how hungry he was, he didn't stop on the way to the team meeting.

***Ichiraku ramen***

"Hey Oji-san! Give me a big one and keep them coming!" Naruto yelled as he hopped onto his stool.

"Hey Naruto, right away!" the old chef said, firing up the spare burners on the stove.

"Ayame-nee san, I got a big mission tomorrow." He said as he waited for his ramen.

"Really Naruto?"she asked as she wiped of the counter.

"yep a full C rank mission." He said proudly, Teuchi came in now with an extra large ramen and as soon as it hit counter, Naruto was devouring it.

"So give me details Naruto!" Ayame said happily waiting for the story.

And so Naruto went into what little details he knew about said mission, greatly exaggerating some of them. Taking the simple 'I have an escort mission to wave country.' To 'I'm on a high risk mission guarding a world famous architect from here to wave country.'

"That's quite a mission Naruto." Teuchi said skeptically, knowing that he was probably over summing it up, I mean how many ninja could he fight on his first out of village mission.

"Yeah, oh I have to run, I need to say goodbye to my friends." Naruto said, realizing he had somehow spent an hour eating ramen and chatting with Teuchi and Ayame. And with that he ran out, leaving his money on the table and dashing out.

'_Wait… friends?' _Teuchi thought after a moment, and then a small smile formed on the old man's face. _'You're finally being appreciated, aren't you Naruto…' _Teuchi thought returning to the stove.

***an hour before with the Hokage and Kakashi***

"There you go Kakashi, one C rank mission. Are you sure it's the best way to convince Ino and Shikamaru to work?" the aged Hokage asked.

"Yeah… it's best we get that out of the way, before they're in any real danger on a real mission." Kakashi replied.

"I suppose. You will be on time tomorrow, right Kakashi?" he questioned eerily.

"Uhh, yes Hokage-sama." He said nervously."By the way… are you sure it was a good idea to move it back to tomorrow? That usually doesn't roll over well with the clients." Kakashi stated whipping out his book.

"It was for the best. Your students wouldn't be prepared for a long mission in a poor country, besides… they should have a chance to say goodbye to their friends." The Hokage said.

"I suppose… can I have a few emergency mission scrolls? I doubt that my students will actually know what too pack." Kakashi stated with a sigh.

***with Naruto***

Naruto continued down the street toward the training grounds, to say goodbye to Tenten and Lee. Then he noticed something weird… a scuffling noise from directly behind him, the second he stopped it stopped. He turned around and found something that made him sweat-drop.

"Ko… that's a terrible disguise… ROCKS DON'T LOOK LIKE THAT!" Naruto yelled out at the large 'rock' the size of a refrigerator, with two small holes in the front and an arrow pointing down with the words 'This Side Up' scratched out.

As soon as the words left his mouth a large explosion of pink smoke, leaving a pink residue all over Naruto's face, emerged a small boy with a ridiculously long scarf sat coughing up the cheap academy standard smoke bomb.

"Just as sharp as ever my rival, we battle now!" And with a seal the boy called "Oiroke no Jutsu!"

There was a puff of smoke and then a beautiful woman stood there in a seductive pose and wisps of mist surrounding her X rated parts, and an innocent face.

There was a moment of silence between both of them as Naruto observed the technique.

"Good job Ko… much better than last time… but it's still missing that… POW factor, you know?" Naruto said taking up a thinking pose. Konohamaru on the other hand stared in shock as his 'newly perfected technique still didn't make the cut.

"Nii-chan!" Konohamaru whined out in his feminine voice.

"That's it!" Naruto yelled, surprising Konohamaru.

"What is it?" Konohamaru questioned animatedly, reversing the transformation.

"You've been forgetting the words!" Naruto yelled out with a smile. "That's half the Jutsu!" Naruto said.

"So what you're saying is… I need to talk when I use it?" Konohamaru asked, as if unsure.

"Exactly!" Naruto said with excitement "but you need to do it right…" Naruto thought for a moment "I'll show you, and then you need to try." _'But I have to visit team Guy, and get ready for my mission._

"Yes, I will surpass you my rival!" Konohamaru yelled.

"So you want to get it better than mine eh?" Naruto questioned. "Then I have an even better idea."

"All right! Training with the boss!" Konohamaru yelled out following after Naruto.

***Bookstore* **

After several attempts at "the voice" part of thee Jutsu, Naruto realized that he needed to work after he was gone, so he decided to get him some bookwork for him. It did wonders for him didn't it?

Both Naruto and Konohamaru hid in the alleyway directly beside the book store. Naruto made a seal and in a puff of smoke, was Kakashi.

"Ok Ko, stay here, I'll get you some homework, while I'm gone on my mission, don't come in after me." Naruto said in Kakashi's voice.

Naruto walked out of the alleyway and strait into the bookstore. He immediately went for the restricted section of the store and grabbed the most recent copy of his sensei and the Hokage's favorite book.

He walked over to the counter and bought it with little incident, using the copy of the book as a deterrent to conversation with the clerk. He got out and went back into the ally to find Konohamaru hiding behind the invisibility curtain. It was terribly applied, but luckily no one could see it from outside the alleyway.

"Hey Ko, I have it could you read this while I'm gone, and don't let anyone catch you reading it… for your own good." Naruto said with seriousness that was uncharacteristic.

"Um ok Nii-chan."Konohamaru replied with uncertainty.

"Anyway, if that's all you need today, I'll be off." Naruto started and began to walk off.

"Bye Nii-chan!" Konohamaru said and scurried off to start reading his new book.

***with Naruto***

"I wonder if he'll do it." Naruto wondered to himself.

Naruto walked along, surprised how much time he spent goofing off, ever since after his graduation he had spent all his time training.

'_I really need to pull a prank.'_ Naruto thought to himself, growing a smile. _'But I need to say goodbye to Tenten and Lee.'_ And with that thought, he began to run toward the training grounds. He reached it in 20 minutes not by any means out of breath, thanking his regimen, he went into the ground and spotted team Guy going through their ridiculous training regimen.

"Hey everyone!" Naruto yelled out to them as he jogged up. The team looked over and had a mixture of reactions. An uncaring glare from the protégé of team, and everyone else ran over to Naruto and greeted him.

"So what are you doing here? Did you finish your mission for the day?" Tenten asked

"Well the thing is, we're going on our first C rank mission tomorrow, and we had the day off." Naruto said.

"Well are you here to train or something? Because we can do what we usually do." Tenten said, to which Lee nodded.

"Well I was hoping we could just… take a break?" Naruto questioned hopefully. "I mean, I need to stay rested for tomorrow." Naruto clarified.

"I guess so." Tenten said, surprised how disappointed she sounded, Naruto was the only one she regularly trained with that didn't make her feel inept. Neji would beat the crap out of her in any spar, with little effort, and Lee could literally run circles around her.

Shaking off the depressing thoughts, she began to think of what to do.

"Before we do anything we have to ask Guy sensei." She said, to which Naruto and Lee nodded.

They walked over toward Guy who was talking to Neji, who was as stoic as ever.

"Guy sensei, can we take the day off?" Lee asked.

"Why my youthful student?" Guy questioned curiously, Lee has never asked for a day off.

"Well, Naruto-kun is going on a C Rank mission tomorrow, and he wants to take it easy." Lee answered.

"While a good it's a good idea to take it easy, but it's also good to train up on something that could save your life." Guy said with a lecturing tone.

"Well there is something… I need a stronger midrange attack than Kage shuriken. I had an idea for it, but I just have no clue how to pull it off." Naruto said sounding frustrated.

"Well what have you got?" Lee asked, curious to what Naruto's idea was.

"Well my staff can split down to six inch sections, and what if I could use those as an accurate ranged attack."

"So, what's the problem?" Tenten asked him, not understanding why it doesn't just work.

"Well, see for yourself." Naruto said, he jumped back and with a pop and a click, a section of staff was sent hurtling toward them. They were shocked by the attack and Tenten didn't doge in time to feel the… impact.

"Oh I see." Tenten said.

"What is it Tenten?" guy asked, concerned for several reasons.

"Because, it barely hurt." She said plainly, "Sure it may give me a bruise, or at the worst break a wrist, but our Naruto wants something that packs more of a punch, right?" she asked, to which he nodded.

"Well you came to the right place… well help you get ready for your mission too. Anything specific?" Guy asked.

Naruto, not one to turn down an offer said "a band for carrying a large scroll, and some food pills, I think mine have gone bad." Naruto said, emptying the smelly pellets on the ground.

"Of course, Lee, let's go to the shinobi store and get Naruto those things!" Guy yelled out, to which Lee yelled out a yosh, and they were off.

"Hey Lee, did you get them?" Guy asked secretively.

"Yes, 4 foot 9 inches." Lee said, holding a measuring tape.

"Now for Naruto's gift.

***With Naruto***

"Those two never cease to surprise me." Naruto said with a sigh.

"Tell me about it… anyway, so how do you plan on doing this Jutsu of yours?" Tenten asked.

"well what I thought about was using chakra to make it go faster, like how the Shunshin works."

Tenten stared at him for a moment as if trying to process the idea, can you blame her? She actually knew how the Shunshin worked, and that wasn't much to go on.

"ok… well let's start by making the staff actually stronger." She said.

"Well I have some reinforcement seals on it, but that doesn't make it a good projectile." He replied

"well how about…" she was about to say before she was interrupted by Neji.

"you could use a seal that increases the density when more chakra is added." He said blankly.

Naruto and Tenten stared at him with surprised looks.

"Um how do you know so much about seals?" Naruto questioned with surprise.

"I… have some general experience with seals." He said, with a slightly annoyed look on his face, which Naruto didn't notice.

So Naruto created a shadow clone and had it work on painting seals on the staff, which isn't as easy as you may think. Naruto and Tenten sat and talked for a while, and did a little target practice while they waited for the clone to finish. After 20 minutes or so the clone had finished the upgrade and prepared to test it.

"You realize that you'll get backlash for this right." A disgruntled shadow clone said while holding a log in front of his chest.

"Relax… it's not like its finished." Naruto replied simply.

Naruto charged chakra into the seals along the staff and hurled it as hard as he can at the poor clone. A nearly inaudible hum from the chakra could be heard. As it neard the target, the volume and pitch fluctuated, and at impact a loud crack was heard across the clearing. Both Naruto and Tenten looked on at the clone as it stood stiff as a board against the impact. A moment later, the clone opened its eyes and shook its head.

"Damn what went wrong?" Naruto asked in frustration. He fell to the ground on his back and stared upwards, trying to keep from yelling out in his frustration.

"Your chakra control is shot." He heard Neji say.

"What's that supposed to mean teme?" Naruto asked in annoyance. "Are you saying I can't control my own chakra?"

"That's exactly what I'm saying." Neji replied coldly, with a hint of smugness.

"Why you little." Naruto growled getting up.

"Hello everyone, were back!" Lee yelled, carrying all the supplies in a show of strength.

Both Lee and Guy walked into the scene blissfully unaware of what was happening before.

"We have what you asked for… and a gift." Guy said. Lee passed Naruto his stuff and turned around. He turned around and with his white smile glistening, he held out a similar spandex suit to theirs. The only difference between them was the color was dark blue.

Naruto looked at the jumpsuit, then at Lee and Guy, then back at the jumpsuit.

"Awesome." Naruto said simply, grabbing it, causing Tenten and Neji to sweat drop.

"Well its getting pretty late, I suppose I should go home." Naruto said simply.

"Well take care, I hope we helped you." Tenten said, getting over the jumpsuit issue.

And with that Naruto left the training ground, carrying his new knowledge, and gift home.

***the next day, East Gate***

Naruto walked leisurely toward the east gate, in his mission gear. His mission outfit was pretty much the same as his training gear, just the extra weapons pouch here or there, and the spandex outfit securely underneath his clothes, which was surprisingly easy to get on.

When the gate came into sight, he was surprised to see Kakashi waiting with an obviously drunk old man. But thankfully neither Ino nor Shikamaru was around.

"hey Naruto how are you doing today?" he heard Ino say from behind Kakashi.

'_damn…'_

"Is Naruto finally here? What a drag…" he heard Shikamaru from… right next to him?

'_Why me?'_ Naruto asked himself.

"all right now that Naruto is with us, we can begin. Everyone take one of these." He said passing out three scrolls. "These are emergency usage only. They hold standard supplies required on any mission."

Both Naruto and Shikamaru opened theirs and took a glance at the contents which made a new meaning for the word standard.

'_I'd laugh if Ino was trapped in the woods with one of these…' _Naruto thought to himself, with a chuckle.

"Anyway is there any reason to stay?" Kakashi asked sounding edgy, he wanted to get going, and there was that feeling of foreboding that comes from years of war.

Seeing that none of them said anything, he turned and introduced the client, who was the drunken guy, as Tazuna. He was building some massive bridge leading to fire country to his homeland. He hired us to protect him from the average bandit or gang. And after an insult to Naruto's size and the capability of team 7, they decided to go off.

'_My first mission… it's finally here… and I AM READY!' _Naruto thought as he took his first steps out of the village and his first steps in his ninja career. Will Naruto be ready for the challenges ahead of him? Find out.

**End**

**AN/ I'm really sorry for the delay, I had an issue with the eternal enemy all authors face... Writer's block. I hope it's good, and if any suggestions, or mistakes, feel free to point them out.**

**See ya all next time.**


	7. Chapter 7

**Don't own naruto.**

**The demon of the mist**

Team seven and Tazuna had been walking toward wave country for a while. They had occasionally run conversation, such as Kakashi explaining some of the hidden village system, and the 5 Kage. They walked along for a while, talking about remedial things, such as the weather and mission specs, like details about wave.

"So we have to take a boat?" Naruto asked, seemingly for the thousandth time.

"Yes we have to take a boat… it's not like you can walk on water." Tazuna said with a sigh.

At that Naruto pouted, and Kakashi chuckled to himself. As he was chuckling he duly noted the feeling of foreboding again. They had continued down the path toward the water, and Kakashi continued to feel that feeling. Suddenly, there was a splash and the sound of metal cutting through air.

_'That was a lousy disguise.' _Kakashi thought to himself.

And the sounds of tearing flesh filled the ears of team 7 and Tazuna.

The team looked back just in time to see the pieces of their sensei fall of the razor sharp chain between two men.

Both wore modified forehead protectors for the hidden mist village, that had crude horns built on. One wore a tattered cloak with an air mask on his face, while the other wore more conventional shinobi clothing but also had the same mask. Attached to the chain of what looked like shuriken were gauntlets with claws covering one hand of each man.

"One down!" the one with the gauntlet on the right arm yelled.

"Three to go." The other said. They both charged the shocked team and client with the chain ready to shred the next one between them and the client, which happened to be Naruto.

Naruto was frozen in place from the emotions filling him up right now. The man who was his Jonin sensei was dead, and now he was next. He saw them heading toward him in slow motion. He realized why he was given a day to say good bye to everyone he cared about.

"Naruto!" he heard "NARUTO!" he heard again, he turned his head to see Shikamaru with a look of concentration on his face, and his hands holding a modified rat seal. "Naruto snap out of it, I have them for now, hit them before they think of a way to break free." Shikamaru said breaking his seal and beginning to move around.

Naruto looked back at the two ninja, one of which was awkwardly moving around, identically with Shikamaru. Naruto looked back at Shikamaru who looked at him and gave him a look which screamed 'get moving' to which Naruto complied.

Naruto charged at the two ninja somewhat successfully ignoring Kakashi's remains, and threw a punch at the unbound one's face which was dodged easily. The man's hand twitched and the chain unlatched from the clawed gauntlet and the man made a slash at Naruto which caught him in the forearm. Naruto staggered back and brought his other arm up, and with a puff of smoke one half of his staff was out.

The man was taken aback for a moment, and after a moment, charged strait at Naruto, who which got ready to defend. Suddenly the man changed direction and ran toward Shikamaru, Ino, and Tazuna.

_'Shit!'_ Naruto thought. He ran after him with the intent to stop him, but was moving at half the speed the ninja was.

_'If this is going to work, please Kami let it be now.' _Naruto thought to himself. _'It doesn't even have a name.' _he added lamely.

Naruto brought his kali stick up, and began to focus. Time slowed down to him as he charged chakra into the weapon. He attempted to control the raging inferno that was his chakra like Neji said just the day before. After it had stabilized as much as he could afford, he hurled it at the ninja. As soon as it left his hand there was a pop and it crashed into a small tree behind the group, which fell down with a crack.

"Well done Naruto, but I have it taken care of." He heard a voice say.

"What the hell?" Naruto practically yelled in shock. After he said this he fell down with a pained yelp and clutched his arm.

Everyone was taken aback by the damage from the stick that Naruto just seemed to throw normally, but they were able to shake it off when Naruto fell to the ground.

"Shit, the gauntlet is poisoned… I don't know if I have an antidote for it, and I don't think we can bleed it out because it's on the forearm." Kakashi said as he began to ponder what to do. Naruto made a sound, and they all looked toward him to see he was digging a kunai into his arm and biting down on the handle of another.

"Naruto! What are you doing? Kakashi said to not do that!" Ino yelled out to him, she ran to him and clubbed him in the head, and pulled the kunai out of his hand. She grabbed some bandages from her first aid kit in the emergency supplies.

"Ow Ino! What was that for?" Naruto asked pulling his teeth out of the deep imprints on the handle, "It's ok, I've read this in a boo-OW Ino, what the hell!" he yelled out, as she put some ointment on the now deepened cut.

"Geez Naruto, you're such a cry baby." Ino said with a growl as she began to wrap his arm.

"ne? Kakashi sensei, those were ninja weren't they? Why would they come after us anyway?" Naruto questioned while trying to not yell in pain, Ino hasn't had any medical training that much was for certain.

Before Kakashi could answer, he was interrupted by Shikamaru.

"They immediately attacked Kakashi sensei, hoping to take him out, knowing how it would end in a long fight with a Jonin. After that, they moved to attack us, if the target was Kakashi they would have taken his remains and left. That leaves the three of us, and the client. There's no particular reason for two foreign ninja to target the three of us. So that leaves Tazuna-san." He said in a way that sounded nonchalant, except for the serious tone at the end.

"Very observant Shikamaru, as expected." Kakashi said with one of those weird eye smiles. "So Tazuna-san, why were the demon brothers of Kirigakure were hunting you?

"Ok, I'll give…" Tazuna said dejectedly. "There's a reason for all of this, and its name is Gato."

"You mean that millionaire shipping guy?" Ino questioned.

"Yes, but that's just his public face, in wave he runs several illegal operations in wave. He's blocked all the shipping to and from wave to do it." Tazuna continued, "The only way we can stand a chance is to build this bridge and eliminate our dependency on Gato's fleet of ships."

"So why not hire some… more qualified ninja to do this?" Shikamaru asked, he had a hunch but he needed to ask.

"He's run the country for so long, not even the daimyo could pay for more than a C rank." He replied. "Please you have to help; you're our last chance at freedom!" Tazuna begged.

"I don't see how we can… Naruto hurt himself pretty badly." Kakashi said earning an annoyed noise from said blonde. "Besides, the only direction the conflict can go is up, and they couldn't handle a pair of Chunin." Kakashi said, he knew it was unfair to put it like that, but it was true.

"Kakashi sensei, we have to help. Besides I'm fine now…" Naruto said moving his now bandaged arm to prove it.

"All right, we might as well." Kakashi said simply, knowing already that the others wanted to by the looks on their faces. "But if we are to continue, you have to understand that I will call backup if we run into any more trouble." He said in a stern tone. "Now then, before we go." he began pulling out a kunai. "Goodnight." He said and using the hilt of his kunai to knock the demon brothers out.

"So we just leave them here?" Ino asked.

"Yeah… they'll get picked up by the anbu that patrol the area, or the hunter-nin that are after them." Kakashi said, and with that they walked away, intent on getting to the land of waves before sundown.

Several minutes after they left there a swirl of leaves appeared in front of the pair tied up to the tree. The figure stood before them, and with a small whoosh, the ropes were gone and the figure picked them up. The figure disappeared with a half seal the same way it arrived.

***with team 7***

The team continued down the road for a while, still a little shaken by the preceding events but determined to continue. Naruto was shaken up the most, but not by the attack itself, but by his reaction.

_'I can't believe that all that training did absolutely nothing, I was too terrified to move!'_ Naruto thought to himself, he couldn't understand why he hesitated when Shikamaru had them. But he did, and he just couldn't forgive himself. _'I nearly cost us the mission too.'_ Ne added sadly.

Naruto looked down at the bandages on his arm, and he was sadly reminded that he damaged his gift from team Guy. Naruto then made a promise to himself.

"I swear on the blood of my wound, that I will never be afraid of an enemy again." Naruto whispered to himself. This oath was missed by everyone except Kakashi, who smiled approvingly to himself.

_'Good Naruto, we all have high hopes for you.' _He thought to himself.

"We're here." Tazuna said to them, and what they saw surprised them. They saw the ocean, which to most is a normal occurrence, but the three Genin had never seen so much water in one place, having never left the village.

"Incredible." Ino said breathlessly.

"it's so… big." Shikamaru said looking across, noting the clouds.

"So… where's the boat?" Naruto asked, breaking everyone out of their thoughts.

"I'm over here!" they heard a man say.

They walked over to find a man with what looked like a large log with a motor on it hidden in the brush.

"Why are you back here?" Tazuna asked.

"There was a patrol boat, I had to hide." The boatman said

As he revealed the boat, Naruto's face took one on a look of disappointment. Naruto having never seen a real boat before was expecting something more of what he saw in magazines, same of Ino and Shikamaru.

"You can't be…" Naruto was silenced by Kakashi's hand covering his mouth. It was quiet at first, but soon it revealed itself with the roar of a large motor. A boat moved through the mist slowly like a predator, just waiting for its prey. On this boat there were several men armed like a daimyo's army. There were others on the ship moving crates around, with the light fog it was impossible to see what they were, but they were piled up next to something that looked like a metal box with square holes in it.

"That may be a problem" Shikamaru said.

"What is that thing?" Ino asked looking at the metal box.

"That's automatic kunai launcher. I've dealt with them before on a mission." Kakashi said, not allowing nostalgia to take.

"How do we get past it?" Shikamaru questioned. "If the holes on it are any indication, those things can put out enough to tare our boat to pieces.

"No, we can sneak past, do we have oars?" Kakashi questioned to which the boatman nodded. "Ok get them ready, ill whip up some cover. Kirigakure no Jutsu."

Kakashi made a seal and the wisps of mist around them grew into a thick fog.

"Awesome" Naruto whispered. Everyone else didn't show it but they were just as impressed, it was something besides the academy Jutsu, and to the two non-ninja just as amazing.

"Let's move." Kakashi said.

***The shore of wave country***

"That was easier than I thought." Naruto said, hoping to have a chance to prove himself from his last failure soon, but still glad about not having to swim all the way there or back.

"Let's be glad nothing happened." Kakashi said, to which they all nodded.

They moved through the woods as Tazuna instructed them, passing a lake or two along the way, and the mist seemed to thicken around them slowly.

And in a flash a kunai flew into a bush. A rabbit leapt out of the bush and ran off as if the dogs were after it.

"Naruto, we realize your jumpy but don't just attack anything that moves" Ino said putting away her kunai that she drew on reflex, followed by Shikamaru who did the same.

Though the three Genin didn't know why, they were nervous. Not the normal kind of nerves that they had before, the feeling they had was something unnatural. Even Tazuna knew what the feeling was through pure life experience. But he couldn't figure out where or who, so he thought it was the Genin who were still glaring at each other. But Kakashi on the other hand immediately figured out what it was.

_'Killing intent! Where is it coming from?'_ Kakashi thought, his eye widened slightly at the revelation and he tried to find the source.

"Isn't it strange, that a winter rabbit is out this time of year?" Tazuna said attempting to lower the tension that he thinks the kids are causing.

"Winter rabbit?" Ino questioned. And they all thought immediately the same thing.

_'But it's…'_ the thoughts were cut off by a yell from Kakashi.

"GET DOWN NOW!" Kakashi yelled grabbing Tazuna and diving to the ground. They all complied and they heard something big fly through the air and slam into a tree.

"Well, well, well… Kakashi Hatake, the copycat ninja. It is an honor that you know my signature technique." They heard a menacing voice say. They turned toward the voice to see a muscular man standing on what looked like a guillotine with a handle on it, lodged deeply into a tree. He had bandages around his face and wore similar camouflage pants to one of the demon brothers.

"Kakashi sensei, who is that?" Ino asked with fear in her voice, from that unknown pressure on her being tripling as soon as his words pierced the chilling mist.

"This is the Kirigakure no Kijin, ex-head of the Kiri Anbu Black opps, master of the silent killing technique, and one of the seven swordsman of the mist, Momochi Zabuza." Kakashi stated glairing up at him. He wondered if he should go into some more details about him, but his thoughts were interrupted by the now named Zabuza.

"I never thought that someone like you would teach a group of brats Copy cat Kakashi. But it doesn't matter, get out of my way and I won't kill you or your little brats." Zabuza said, hopping down from his sword and yanking it out of the tree.

"I'm sorry, but I can't do that… you understand right?" Kakashi said, his hand moving toward his headband.

"Yeah… mission comes first, let us begin copying monkey." Zabuza said, as he made a half seal and whispered _"Kirigakure no Jutsu!"_ and in seconds, visibility was down to zero. "There are eight major vital points in the human body…" they heard a voice say in the mist. "Liver, lungs, spine, clavia vein, neck vein, brain, kidneys and heart." It continued in a tone that helped them understand why he was called a demon.

"Don't worry everyone." The Genin and Tazuna heard Kakashi say, "I won't allow him to hurt any of you, on my life." He said, immediately the pressure disappeared and they could breathe again.

"That's what you think!" they heard from the middle of the group, they all turned to see the seven foot long blade about to cut them all in half. Suddenly Kakashi appeared as well and blocked the sword with a kunai, and with another impaled Zabuza in the chest. Only for Zabuza to burst into water.

Kakashi's eye widened and he whipped his head around only to see the same blade about to bisect him.

_'Shit! No time to substitute.'_ Kakashi thought, knowing he couldn't stop the full momentum of the blade; suddenly he felt a pull and was in front of Tazuna. There was a loud clang and everyone saw two Narutos standing there supporting his staff, keeping the blade from cutting through.

"Naruto!" Kakashi said with surprise.

Ignoring him, Naruto called "Shikamaru! Hold him!"

Shikamaru, getting over the shock, made his family seal and everyone saw Shikamaru's shadow darken and extend to Zabuza's shadow.

"I got him." Shikamaru said, he released the seal, he moved his arms to mirror Zabuza, and moved his arms. At the same time, Zabuza was shocked, by the Genin stopping his sword, the other Genin being a Nara, and the fact his arms were moving.

"Well… the Kagemane no Jutsu. To most it would stop them in their tracks." Zabuza said, his arms continuing to lift his sword. "but me… a veteran of many battles in the last war, between the mist and leaf, I know how to" Zabuza began, as he said this, Shikamaru could feel his Jutsu slipping. "Break it!" he said suddenly he slammed the blade against the staff, which snapped clean in two, and bisected one Naruto, which was the shadow clone. At the same time Shikamaru was staring wide eyed at the development as he followed through with the same movement.

Naruto jumped back and sighed as the broken stick in his hand puffed away.

"That didn't work." Naruto said dryly.

"Well I think its time I took over Naruto… Shikamaru, cancel your Jutsu." Kakashi said as he pushed his headband up. "after all… he's mine." Kakashi said. He opened his eye to reveal a blood red eye, with three marks in the shape of tome.

"Ahh the precious sharingan!" Zabuza exclaimed. "I was wondering when I would get to see it." Zabuza said.

"Now where were we?" Kakashi, ignoring his quip, questioned pulling out a kunai.

Zabuza slowly disappeared into the mist without answering along with Kakashi, leaving the three Genin in formation around Tazuna.

"What just happened there Shikamaru, you had him!" Naruto questioned seriously.

"My Jutsu isn't fool proof… I just didn't know he could force me to move at the same time." Shikamaru said.

"Well Kakashi sensei can handle it, he has a sharingan! Did you guys even think that he could have just hidden one all this time?" Ino asked.

"No, I didn't at all." Shikamaru said, searching the mist for any sign of either of them.

"what is a sharingan anyway?" Naruto asked with annoyance showing clearly, everyone seemed to know but him.

"the sharingan is the special Jutsu of the Uchiha clan."Ino said.

"Sasuke is an Uchiha right?" Naruto asked.

"Yes! He's so cool!" Ino began. "With it, he can see chakra, it increases reaction time drastically, and some say you can see the future with it." She said excitedly.

"Hey is the mist going away?" Shikamaru asked.

"I think so… Kakashi sensei!" Ino screamed, seeing as he was in a ball of water floating of the ground, with Zabuza holding it.

"Well Kakashi, I have you completely at my mercy, but I think that I'll save you for last. Your Genin on the other hand, I would like to get them out of the way before we continue… Mizu Bunshin no Jutsu." Zabuza called with a half seal, the water rose out of the lake and formed into the shape of another Zabuza.

The water clone Zabuza moved slowly toward the Genin, intent on finishing it when it suddenly came to a stop.

"Maybe you could stop me then, but using a clone cuts your power in half." Shikamaru said holding the rat seal.

"My turn!" Naruto yelled, he pulled several shuriken out of a pouch and tossed them at the clone, which moved and turned its sword's flat and blocked the shuriken. It lashed out and caught one mid air, and threw it back.

"Shikamaru?" Naruto questioned.

"I can't hold him, he's still too strong." Shikamaru said with a growl.

Naruto thought for a minute, working on a plan, while Shikamaru with the help of Ino was keeping the clone from moving.

"Shikamaru I have a plan." Naruto whispered.

"To get rid of the clone?" He asked.

"No to free Kakashi." Naruto replied with a smirk.

"Naruto what do you mean?" Shikamaru asked.

"Just listen." Naruto said, he pulled Shikamaru close, and went over his idea with Shikamaru.

"That may work, but my shadow possession won't work, even if its half his strength, as you may have noticed." Shikamaru said, knowing his Justus's strengths.

"if it relies on the wills of the user and the target, what if there are more than one?" Naruto questioned.

Shikamaru didn't really understand what Naruto meant, until Naruto sidestepped toward him, placing his foot into his shadow. A look of realization appeared on his face and with a smirk he made another rat seal his shadow dashed toward the water clone.

The water Zabuza didn't even bother to dodge the shadow as it connected. But its eyes widened when the control he had was gone.

"What!" it exclaimed "why can't I move?" it looked toward the two, with what limited eye movement. And what it saw shocked it and irritated it. Shikamaru's shadow was connected to him, but it was also connected to Naruto from both Shikamaru and the clone.

"Han-Kagemane no Jutsu!" both Naruto and Shikamaru called out. Both Naruto and Shikamaru moved at the same time forcing the clone to move.

"The will of one wasn't enough." Shikamaru said with unusual forcefulness.

"Then how about two?" Naruto finished with a toothy grin.

"Those kids are pretty smart, ne Kakashi?" Zabuza said to Kakashi who just glared at him in the water prison.

"Now then, to free Kakashi." Naruto said. He reached toward his back, forcing the clone to do the same. The clone gripped the hilt of his sword and ripped it from its belt. Shikamaru and Naruto turned and made a slashing motion, and released their grips.

The massive blade sailed strait toward Zabuza at terrifying speed.

"Too slow brats." Zabuza said as he made a seal and the clone dispersed…

But the sword didn't. "what?" he yelled in surprise, he stepped back and shifted so the sword would pass by as harmlessly as possible harmlessly, but as it passed by his face, a puff of smoke revealed it to be Naruto.

"Got you!" Naruto yelled as he dropkicked Zabuza in the vulnerable arm. Zabuza blocked it with his free hand and twitched his finger and a kunai with an extra point coming out of the side, came out of his arm warmer and into his hand. Naruto pulled out a kunai and parried the attempt at stabbing, and used another kunai to slash at Zabuza's wrist. Zabuza, not being an idiot, pulled his hand out of the water prison and landed a lightning fast punch into Naruto's gut.

"You little brat!" Zabuza yelled at the poor boy.

"I suppose we can continue now ne?" Kakashi said appearing in front of Zabuza in a fighting stance.

Zabuza chuckled a little. "I suppose we can, but when I'm finished with you the kid is next." He said menacingly.

"Good luck with that." Kakashi said replied.

And with that Zabuza and Kakashi began chains of hand seals, each identically preformed as they stood on the shore.

But at the same time Naruto, who had been sent sailing into the small lake, had swam back to shore.

"I was out for a few seconds, what's going on?" Naruto questioned.

"They are both preparing a Ninjutsu… it looks like the fight in the mist is over." Shikamaru said watching the two elite ninja.

"Then I shouldn't have bothered with my tracking seal…" Naruto said with a sigh.

"Wait… when did you mark him?" Ino asked with surprise, during that engagement she didn't see him put a hand on Zabuza.

"When he blocked my kick, it's on his arm warmer." Naruto said with a smirk, knowing it wouldn't be seen on a camouflage piece of fabric.

"They've been sealing for quite a while." Ino said.

"wait I think they're…"

"Suiton: Suiryuudan no Jutsu!" they called out at the same time.

And at that moment, a pair of monstrous dragons made of water began to weave and doge around each other, looking their ominous glowing eyes looking for an opining. This put the earlier show of Jutsu to shame in everyone's eyes, and made each wonder, how are they doing this?

After both Jutsu canceled they immediately started another Jutsu, but for some reason Zabuza seemed frantic or scared. Which was hard to believe anyway.

"Suiton: Daibakufu no Jutsu!" they heard Kakashi call, and suddenly a massive torrent of water exploded forward and slammed into Zabuza. The Jutsu carried deep into the forest and finally ended with Zabuza barely conscious against a tree.

"I think it's over."Naruto said in shock at the display.

"Let's get over there." Shikamaru said equally impressed, just doing a better job of hiding it.

They went around the lake and found Kakashi talking to a masked man… more like a kid.

"I'll be taking the body… you did a good job too Genin." The masked boy said.

"Hey who the hell are you?" Naruto asked with annoyance, he didn't like the attitude he was getting.

"Naruto, this is a hunter-nin, similar to the anbu black ops. He finished Zabuza." Kakashi said, ignoring the tired feeling.

"What? How could he possibly do that? He's just a kid." Naruto yelled at Kakashi.

"I must be going, Kakashi-san, must dispose of the body." The hunter-nin said, and in a swirl of leaves he picked up Zabuza and disappeared in the same manner.

"Ok so what now?" Naruto asked, and everyone looked at Kakashi.

"Now, we call for help." Kakashi said, he pulled out a scroll, and with a few drops of his blood on the scroll, he made a few hand seals. "Kuchiyose no Jutsu." Kakashi said, and a small dog appeared on top of the scroll. But suddenly Kakashi felt light headed and his eyes went out of focus, _'wait… my sharingan!' _Kakashi thought before he passed out.

"Kakashi sensei!" Ino screamed, as she watched Kakashi fall to the ground.

"Yo Kakashi… he ok?" they heard from the cloud. A small dog hopped out of the cloud and looked at them expectantly.

Ignoring the weirdness of the situation, Naruto decided to take the initiative. "I don't know what you are but our teacher summoned you, so could you please get some help for our mission."

And with that, the dog left with a nod.

"Tazuna-san, where is your house?" Shikamaru asked.

"This way, just follow me." He replied.

The left that lake behind them, but before they got far Naruto felt an inch, not a regular one, but the one that screamed something was off.

_'Whatever, we need to get Kakashi to safety. '_Naruto thought.

**AN/**

**Hey people sorry I'm late, I went on vacation over the week and get this, the hotel didn't have any internet! So I couldn't even warn you, so I made this chapter longer than normal.**

**Please I need somebody to point out the blatant errors in my story.**

**Read review, it gives me a reason to keep writing. **


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